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THE GLORY SEEKERS 

THE ROMANCE OF WOULD-BE FOUNDERS OF EMPIRE 
IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE GREAT SOUTHWEST 



i 




Aaron Burr 
American conspirator 



THE 

GLORY SEEKERS 

THE ROMANCE OF WOULD-BE FOUNDERS 

OF EMPIRE IN THE EARLY DAYS OF 

THE GREAT SOUTHWEST 

BY 

WILLIAM HORACE BROWN 



WITH SIXTEEN PORTRAITS AND SIXTEEN 
ILLUSTRATIVE INITIALS 




CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1906 



Copyright 

A. C. McClurg & Co. 

1906 



:;?i 



Published April 14, 1906 



ILIBBARY of CONGRESS 
Twc Ccoies Received 

APR 18 1906 

Cooync'il Entry 
ASS a' :•'•'■ No, 



THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 



FOREWORD 

OVER the scenes of the exploits traced in these 
pages the sun of glory is now high risen. The 
wilderness has been transformed into proud and 
populous States. Men whose daring and ambition out- 
weighed their sense of justice prevised in early days the 
quick-dawning greatness of the land. Eager for pos- 
session, while yet it was a wilderness, their i predatory 
enterprises smacked of mediaeval violence. Usually of des- 
perate spirit, they staked their lives on the venture, to 

" — win their way with falchion's force. 
Or pave the path with many a corse. " 

Sheep now browse over thousands of unmarked graves 
of adventurers who invaded Spanish territory bent on 
conquest ; for in almost every raid they paid the mortal 
penalty of their rashness, and their doom in some degree 
absolved their transgression. 

Yet not all of those reckless gamesters were rude, un- 
schooled desperadoes. Among them are numbered youths 
of education and respectable connections, whose brief lives 
lend to the annals the glamor of wild romance. Their 



vi FOREWORD 

deeds are hardly registered on the sedate pages of national 
history, although for decades they inspired emulation 
throughout the South and the West. As time recedes, the 
incidents of those bold days will diminish in the historical 
perspective, yet they will continue for generations to fur- 
nish themes for story and drama. Those garnered in this 
volume form a particular group. 

W. H. B. 



NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

A S an index to the sources from which these chapters . 
/jk were mainly drawn, and also as an acknowledg- 
^ j^nient of his obligation to them, the writer gives 
the following authorities, with the feeling that the 
first three in the list are entitled to special recognition : 
Gayarre's " History of Louisiana," Yoakum's " History of 
Texas," Pickett's " History of Alabama, Georgia, and Mis- 
sissippi," Humphrey Marshall's " History of Kentucky," 
Monette's " History of the Valley of the Mississippi," 
Foote's " Texas and the Texans," J. H. Brown's, Holley's, 
and Thrall's histories of Texas, Ramsey's "Annals of 
Tennessee," Haywood's " History of Tennessee," Martin's 
"History of Louisiana," Thomas Marshall Green's "Span- 
ish Conspiracies," Goodspeed's "The Province and the 
States," William Jay's "The Federal Government and 
Slavery," Giddings's "Florida Exiles," Kendall's "Santa 
Fe Expedition," H. H. Bancroft's " North Mexican States 
and Texas," Vol. IL The principal histories of the United 
States were also frequently consulted. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

Page 
The Southwest after the War of Independence — Adventurers and 
Discontents — Spanish Obstructions — Wilkinson's Treason- 
able Enterprise — A Spaniard's Prophecy 15 



CHAPTER n 

Plots for Disunion — Genet, "Citizen" Minister from France, 
Arrives — Attempts to Raise an Army of Conquest in America 
— Much Disloyalty — Bold Schemes Frustrated 39 



CHAPTER III 

Wilkinson, again in the Army, stIU Conspires with Spanish Gov- 
ernors — Disgrace of Senator Blount — Examples of Land 
Operations — Romantic Career of Renegade Bowles .... 60 



CHAPTER IV 

Wilkinson and Burr — Great Panic and Little Danger — Burr's 
Arrest — Wilkinson's Baseness — The Story of Madeline . . 83 



CHAPTER V 

Phihp Nolan's Expedition of Conquest — Visions of Empire — 
Invades Texas — Sudden Disaster — Quaint Memoir of EUis 
Bean 117 



CHAPTER VI 

Continuation of EUis Bean's Experiences in Captivity — Becomes 
a Mexican Insurrectionist — War and Romance 142 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VII 



Fagb 
Reuben Kemper, Buccaneer — Unlawful Seizure of Baton Rouge 161 
District — Early-Day Terrorism — Characters that have been 
Whitewashed — Grotesque Campaign against Mobile District 



CHAPTER VIII 

Insensibility of the American Government to Wrongs Committed 
by Southwesterners — Buccaneers not even Rebuked — First 
Secession Utterances in Congress — Opposition to National 
Growth 179 



CHAPTER IX 

The Magee Expedition — Soldier and Filibuster — Glory Leads 
toward Mexico — "The Republican Army of the North" — 
Success of the Invaders — Strange Death of the Leader . . 192 



CHAPTER X 

The Invaders Aggressive — Battle of Rosalis — Gachupins badly 
Defeated — Victorious Army becomes Demoralized — Vice- 
roy's Forces Annihilate it 215 



CHAPTER XI 

Colonel Perry's Exploit — Joins vnth Aury and Mina — The Tri- 
umvirate Descends on Mexico — Splits on the Rock of Jealousy 
— Mina Captured — Perry Returns to Texas — Dies in Battle 231 



CHAPTER XII 

A Cultured Adventurer — Courtship of Doctor Long and Pretty 
Jennie Wilkinson — Long also Infatuated with Conquest — 
Invades Texas — Seeks an Ally in Lafitte 240 



CONTENTS xi 



CHAPTER XIII 

Paob 
The Invader and the Corsair — Disasters Afield — The Garrison 
at Bohvar — Jennie Long's Distress and Loyalty — A Heroine 
in the Wild 256 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Florida Exiles — A History Story seldom Told — Seminoles 
and Maroons — The Horror of Fort Nichols — An Echo from 
the Everglades 273 



CHAPTER XV 

Texans Covet New Mexico — Ill-judged Expedition to Santa Fe 
— Mediaeval Warfare — Texans all Prisoners — Predicament 
of an Editor , 298 



CHAPTER XVI 

Captive Train Started for Mexico City — Terrors of the Journey 
— Strange Scenes and Experiences — Pestilence and Chains — 
Liberty at Last 325 



INDEX 339 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Page 
Aaron Burr, American conspirator .... Frontispiece 

Governor Estevan Miro, Spanish Provincial Governor 

of Louisiana 30 

General James Wilkinson, an instigator of plots with 

Spanish Governors 46 

" Citizen " Genet, Minister from France to the United 

States 50 

General George Rogers Clark, Revolutionary hero 

who espoused Genet's cause 54 

Governor Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky 58 

Governor William Blount, of Tennessee .... 66 

Governor William C. C. Claiborne, of Louisiana . . 96 

Ellis Bean, of the Nolan Expedition 128 

Jose Maria Morelos, Mexican revolutionist . . . 154 

Xavier Mina, Spanish-American revolutionary adven- 
turer 234 

Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, Government explorer of the 

Great Southwest 248 

Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines, the renowned heiress- 
litigant 284 

General Edmund P. Gaines, Commander of the De- 
partment of the Southwest 294 

Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of Texas 300 

George Wilkins Kendall, historian of the Texas- 
Santa Fe Expedition 312 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 



CHAPTER I 

The Southwest after the War of Independence — Adventurers and Dis- 
contents — Spanish Obstructions — Wilkinson's Treasonable Enter- 
prise — A Spaniard's Prophecy. 

HIS is mainly the 
story of men who, 
standing on the 
rugged confines of 
civilization in 
America at an early 
period of our na- 
tional life, sought 
distinction by at- 
tempting to hitch 
their wagons to the 
star of empire. 

In the tales of 
early American ad- 
venture we e n - 
counter some picturesque characters, and frequently have 
fairly to gasp for breath at the audacity of their schemes. 
Especially is this true of those daring spirits who operated 
in the Southwest, that grand theatre of historic melo- 
drama, — of perilous exploits, projects of conquest, and 




16 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

dreams of sovereignty. The opportunities that unfolded 
to their visions embraced the subjection of territory ex- 
tending anywhere from the Alleghany mountains to Yu- 
catan. For the most part they probably were limited to 
founding a republic or an empire in the vast regions 
between the Lower Mississippi and the Rio Grande rivers. 
This extensive region seems to have excited more fanci- 
ful pictures of pomp and power in the minds of imagi- 
native glory seekers than any other part of the American 
continent. During the period of three or four decades 
following the War of Independence, all paths of exploita- 
tion appear to have led toward this broad domain. That 
long war being at an end, left many men inured to mili- 
tary life, and many disappointed politicians, with limited 
opportunities for the exercise of their singular talents. 
Naturally enough, thousands of them pushed to the fron- 
tiers. To the west were desert and mountain wilderness, 
to the northwest an unexplored and supposedly barren 
region peopled only with savages. But beyond Louisiana 
and the steppes of Texas was a civilized nation numbering 
many millions of people. 

The strained political conditions of our country during 
that era and the chaotic state of affairs in Mexico com- 
bined to incite questionable enterprises. The Mexicans 
were struggling fitfully to shake off the oppressive rule 
of Spain, encouraged by the revolutionary success of their 
northern neighbors, but showing neither their strength 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 17 

nor singleness of purpose. It seemed to be the conviction 
of all that the vast area of woodland and prairie, fertile 
and inviting, lying between the territories of the United 
States and the Mexican frontier was destined to become 
at an early day prosperous and rich. Texas, a Mexican 
province, was practically uninhabited and neglected. All 
it required was to open the gateways, take possession, and 
invite a flood of immigrants from Europe, from the At- 
lantic States, from everywhere. That done, and a power 
established, it would be easy to seize Mexico, to liberate 
the people from Spanish tyranny, and to incorporate the 
whole in one grand empire. And if the United States 
should by that time be having trouble in steering its ship 
of state, — well, the grand empire might then expand to 
the eastward. 

Just when and how these magnificent schemes had their 
inception, is debatable. They were not original with 
Aaron Burr, although he is about the only one who, in 
this generation, is remembered by any but careful students 
of history as having entertained them ; nor was he the last 
who attempted to bring them to a realization. James 
Wilkinson had been plotting for years before Burr floated 
his puny rafts down to the Mississippi, but neither was he 
the first. The Southwest Territory, before the erection 
of the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, teemed with 
rugged fellows who, for one cause or another, had designs 
on Spanish possessions. They had marked the Floridas 



18 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

and Louisiana for their own. And they did not halt at 
that. They schemed also for the dismemberment of the 
Union, with the view of incorporating its States and 
Territories bordering on the Mississippi with provinces 
to be wrested from Spain, and the forming of an indepen- 
dent government. The leading residents of that part of 
the Union engaged in such treason almost before the Con- 
stitution was adopted. They plotted with and against 
the Spanish provincial governors. The latter knew they 
were the mark for constant intrigues, and it would have 
been quite unlike them if they had not reciprocated such 
compliments. 

Indeed, the ramifications of the various intrigues dur- 
ing the last years of the eighteenth century and the early 
years of the nineteenth were so extensive that an essay to 
portray the circumstances which led to the freebooters' ex- 
peditions in the Southwest would be futile without giving 
special attention to them. To appreciate the predatory 
movements of those gentlemen of the high hand it is 
necessary to outline in passing the history of Spanish and 
American relations then existing. 

While we find romances, there are also ugly spots dis- 
closed in those early American annals. It is just as well to 
remind ourselves occasionally of those stains, lest we forget, 
in our tendency to idealize indiscriminately the lives of our 
forbears, that justice and patriotism were not always the 
prompters of their actions. State historians, particularly 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 19 

of the section now considered, have sinned constantly in 
such indiscriminate praise. They have sinned both by 
omission and commission. Some crimes they have studi- 
ously concealed, while others they have sugar-coated and 
passed along to posterity as virtuous actions. 

The American people, as a people, can well afford to be 
candid in their history. It is but justice to those of our 
forefathers who were steadfast in loyalty to remember that 
there were some others who lapsed. It has come about 
that in the minds of the people two names stand for all 
there ever was, in the formative period of our nation, of 
disloyalty to the Union. Arnold and Burr are the only 
renegades to the sacred cause of a free and united country, 
and they are made to suffer vicariously for the sins of 
thousands. It is just as well to uncover some of the 
smaller traitors of those days — it is pertinent to the 
stories of our adventurers. 

Late in 1784 there appeared in Kentucky a young man 
of exceptionally plausible manners and agreeable presence. 
There is no fiction about this. The stranger was a force- 
ful embodiment of self-assertion, self-possession, and self- 
seeking. He was about twenty-eight, of excellent physique, 
not tall, but strongly built, with mobile and almost hand- 
some features. Add to these attractions a high military 
title, and who can wonder that he created a great deal of 
interest among the people of Lexington, with whom he 
announced that he had come to cast his fortunes? He 



20 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

was James Wilkinson, some six years before colonel and 
brevet-brigadier general in the American Army of the 
Revolution. He came now from Philadelphia, where for 
some time he had been connected with commercial concerns ; 
and it was as the representative of such an association, it 
was understood, that he emigrated to the frontier. 

Before following his career, let us take a glimpse at his 
past. Born in Maryland, he early began the study of 
medicine. The war with the mother country breaking out 
he was one of the first to enlist as a private ; served at 
the siege of Boston, and immediately began to receive com- 
missions. He was soon a brigade-major under St. Clair, 
and happened to be present in the house where General 
Charles Lee was captured. The British dragoons who 
purloined that military fakir overlooked Wilkinson, who 
straightway became an adjutant on the staff of General 
Gates with the rank of colonel. He was in at the killing 
at Saratoga, and was present in the most showy uniform 
of the Continentals at the surrender of Burgoyne. It may 
have been because of his exceptional uniform that Gates 
selected him as official messenger to carry his report of 
the victory to the Congress, which was then sitting at 
Yorktown. 

Wilkinson was at that date hardly twenty-one, but pre- 
cocious — rather in audacity, it is hinted, than in military 
skill. But whatever the reason, he was at that period 
a favorite with General Gates. He set out for Yorktown 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 21 

in a showy manner, having a military guard. It would 
naturally be supposed that he made an eager and hurried 
trip with such glorious news for the nation's council. Not 
so. He took more than dignified leisure, stopped long at 
the inns, posed as a hero of the victory to admiring yokels 
in barrooms, received their applause, and repeated the 
entertainment at the next tavern. 

At length, and still more leisurely, he arrived at York- 
town, having been on the road nearly a month. But even 
then he did not report his arrival for two days. The 
uniform and accoutrements had become tarnished by the 
journey, and he took that time to preen himself up to his 
normal glitter, and to prepare a grandiloquent oration 
with which to deliver his message. Finally he presented 
himself before the venerables, who had long before received 
the news through the weekly papers. They listened with 
some impatience to his bumptious rhetoric ; after which 
he hung around, hoping they would reward him for having 
arrived with the report at all. But he had his friends, 
and one of them suggested the propriety of voting him 
a sword, whereupon a disgusted old Scotch member 
exclaimed : 

" I think ye 'd better gie the lad a pair o*" spurs ! '"' 
While the tardy spur-heel was grumbling at the in- 
gratitude of Congress, his friends were busy. He must 
have been a good lobbyist, for before he left he was bre- 
vetted a brigadier. Soon after that he got involved in the 



22 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Conway cabal by talking loosely, for which he pleaded 
excuse by declaring it was during a convivial hour. Gates 
now turned upon and denounced him, but Wilkinson 
maintained, as he ever did when caught in a questionable 
mix, that he worshipped honor as the jewel of his soul. 
He and the general talked pistols behind the meeting- 
house at eight o''clock, but came to an understanding 
and merely took coffee. Wilkinson then was appointed 
secretary to the Board of War, but quarrelled again with 
Gates, its president, v/hom he accused of treachery in the 
Conway affair, and resigned after serving only a few days. 
Just prior to this he resigned his newly-acquired com- 
mission of brevet-brigadier, because all the forty-seven 
colonels of the army, who were older than he, raised such 
a protest at the favoritism of it. 

There was something peculiar about those two resig- 
nations which left the young warrior out of the service. 
That they were altogether voluntary can hardly be credited. 
" It was a retirement," says Irving, " which we apprehend 
he richly merited, and we doubt whether his country 
would have been the loser had he been left to enjoy it 
for the remainder of his days." But Wilkinson did not 
propose to quit a loser. He went to Philadelphia, got 
in with some of the thrifty patriots who were valiantly 
badgering Arnold and taking supply contracts, and in 
a short time was clothier-general of the army. The year 
that the war closed he sought new fields of operation far 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 23 

beyond the Alleghanies. It is said he had already squan- 
dered the money he made as clothier-general. 

Here we have in this war hero among the border popu- 
lace a man of talent and an accomplished demagogue. 
He had a convincing manner, and the tricks of the popular 
declaimer and agitator — captivations most effective for 
the time and the people. No man in the territory was 
more adroit, or fonder of adulation ; and he at once 
adapted himself to his new environment. 

The inhabitants of the new country from the Alleghany 
and Appalachian mountains to the Mississippi, and north 
of the Floridas, were in a complaining mood. The lands 
they occupied along the Ohio and the Southwest rivers 
that flowed to it, or to the father of waters, were fertile 
and productive, but the value of those great arteries of 
transportation was greatly impaired by the denial by the 
Spaniards in Louisiana to the Americans of the right of 
navigation of the Mississippi. They shut that great river 
to the commerce of the American Territories. This was 
in support of the old policy of Spanish statesmen to keep 
Louisiana a wilderness — a barren shield, or buffer, be- 
tween Texas and Mexico and English and French aggres- 
sion from the North and East. This, of course, before 
the American Revolution. It was argued that to allow 
the province to become populous and wealthy would make 
it too tempting a prize for the cupidity of her neighbors. 
The scheme involved a line of forts along the Mississippi, 



24 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

and the limitation of settlement to a small colony around 
New Orleans. 

While this policy of exclusion could not be maintained, 
the Spanish governors of Louisiana adhered to their do- 
minion of the Mississippi, first by absolute prohibition, and 
later (for years subsequent to the Revolution) by tariffs 
that absorbed all profits of traffic to New Orleans. Al- 
though the Spaniards allied themselves with the Americans 
in the war with England, and took West Florida by con- 
quest, the alliance was forgotten when peace came, and 
she erected as many restrictions as possible against the 
American frontiersmen and their trade. To be sure, 
Spain's war on Great Britain had not been out of sym- 
pathy for the United States, but in order to enforce her 
claim to the exclusive right to the navigation of the Gulf 
of Mexico. Her possessions, with the capture of West 
Florida, encircled the Gulf. Now, if she should lose the ex- 
clusive right to the navigation of the Mississippi, she 
would lose that of the Gulf also. And she considered 
that the reward due her for having jumped in and fought 
with the Americans in their hour of gi-eat need was 
that exclusive right. 

It must be remembered also that, even after the relin- 
quishment of the absurd old Spanish claim to the whole 
country eastward to the Alleghanies, they yet owned a 
considerable territory east of the Mississippi, including 
the Natchez district. So, considering the international 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 25 

politics of the times, the claim of the Spaniards to the 
great river was not without the color of reason ; and her 
imposition of duties of forty per cent or more on the goods 
and produce sent down from the Ohio, the Cumberland, 
the Tennessee, and other rivers to her valuable market 
was clearly within her right. But it was rough on the 
American settlers. Their produce could not be trans- 
ported over mountain ranges to the East in those days, 
and much of their crops rotted in the new-cleared fields. 
Add to this the constant depredations of the savages, 
which the Federal government was ill able to repel, and 
which occasioned great hardships to the westerners, and 
the cause of their discontent may easily be understood. 

After James Wilkinson had traded and planted in Ken- 
tucky three years under these conditions, using all his arts 
and influence to increase the clamor of the people and to 
incite them to blame the government for all their distress, 
he turned speculator. He had figured out a possible way 
to beat the Spanish tariffs, and he plunged all his means 
and credit on the desperate move of putting it into execu- 
tion. And it was nothing so innocent as simple smug- 
gling, either. He bought up a cargo of tobacco, bacon, 
whiskey, and flour. It was all cheap, and what he could 
not pay for, which was most of it, he easily got on credit. 
He loaded the stuif on flatboats, and in June, 1787, 
shipped with it for New Orleans. He was not much of 
an admiral, but he did not have to go far from land, and 



26 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the nature of his cargo afforded good cheer for the jour- 
ney. And so he floated down the Tennessee to the Ohio, 
and on to the forted Mississippi, where Spanish guards 
and Spanish guns disputed the way. 

Still the ex-brevet-brigadier drifted on. No such trader 
had ever before come down that old watercourse. Never 
such a browbeating, threatening, authoritative, wheedling, 
deceiving commodore of a backwater fleet had ever come 
that way ; and he got to New Orleans intact, where, of 
course, everybody who had been overawed or hoodwinked 
by him said he would come to grief — that his whole 
shipment would be seized by Governor Miro, and sold. 
Either that or the shipper would pay the duties. 

Well, this was the first time neither of those things 
happened to an American coming there, and everybody 
had a right to be astonished. But let them wait and see 
how this exceptional individual transacts business. 

As usual, Governor Miro ordered the cargo seized. But 
that was before he met the owner. Soon Wilkinson pre- 
sented himself before His Excellency. Now this Spanish 
governor was not any kind of fool, nor a tyro at his 
business. He had dealt with men of all kinds and many 
nationalities in holding his province aloof from the rest of 
the world, and so far none had cajoled him much. And 
it may as well be admitted at once that it is nothing par- 
ticularly to the discredit of his acumen that he gave under 
now, for the record does not show that any living man, 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 27 

from President Washington down to the humblest river 
guard on the border, ever came in contact with this man 
Wilkinson without being made a dupe or a cat's-paw of. 
Miro simply became one of them. First thing anyone 
knew he was giving banquets to his illustrious visitor — 
was not he a great warrior, a general from a victorious 
army and a great war ? Had not Wilkinson had a chance 
to tell him about it ? — and how could one hear, and look 
upon the man, and doubt ? 

The facts are that he had heard about Wilkinson. 
There had been correspondence between them. Miro 
understood that the ex-warrior was a man of extensive in- 
fluence with the discontented Americans. Wilkinson 
soon convinced him of it, and in a short time was per- 
mitted to sell his cargo duty free. But that did not ter- 
minate his visit. He remained at New Orleans on 
intimate terms with the Governor. This, and the privi- 
lege of trading down the Mississippi and with the 
Spaniards, was much wondered at. News about it 
reached Kentucky and mystified the people — most of 
them. And along in September, Wilkinson took his de- 
parture, going by sea around to his old home, Philadel- 
phia, and thence across country to Kentucky. 

This is what had transpired. The wily American had 
approached the Spanish governor with a proposition in 
the interest of Spain. He related how greatly incensed 
the people of Kentucky and Tennessee were, how much 



28 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

they desired the freedom of the Mississippi, and asserted, 
no doubt with impressive exaggeration, how bitter their 
feehng was against their government for not securing for 
them without delay the exemptions they desired. Wil- 
kinson would enter into a compact, for certain considera- 
tions, to head a defection in Kentucky, secure the 
cooperation of the leading citizens, to separate the Terri- 
tory from Virginia and from the Union, and to bring it 
under the protection and sovereignty of Spain. In this 
revolution Tennessee and Mississippi no doubt would join. 
With both attached to Louisiana, that immense province 
would have no further trouble in monopolizing the navi- 
gation of the Mississippi ; that river would then flow 
through the middle of the extended Spanish possessions, 
with the United States having no frontage on it below 
the Ohio. Nor would it be necessary longer to keep 
Louisiana unpeopled as a safeguard against encroachments 
on Texas. 

It was a grand, glittering, audacious scheme. Perhaps 
no other man west of the Alleghanies could have won the 
confidence of Miro in its feasibility — the Spaniard would 
have doubted the capacity of any other to caiTy it 
through. That Wilkinson convinced him by evidence 
other than words that he already had a number of influen- 
tial associates enlisted in the treasonable undertaking, is 
certain. In fact, several were no doubt actual partners 
with him in the cargo he had brought — he had different 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 29 

partnerships in others following, through many years. 
And the theory has been advanced by some that Wilkin- 
son's whole object in his traitorous engagement with Miro 
was to secure an exclusive trading privilege which, in a 
short time, must enrich him. But as a matter of truth, 
this adroit veteran of the Revolution had greater designs 
than those he disclosed to Governor Miro. He had con- 
tracted visions of a great and independent State, of which 
he would be the ruler. Sovereignty had been rapidly 
shifting. Spain was declining — he did not believe the 
political conditions of the world would permit her long to 
hold these desirable American provinces. To wrest them 
from her, after the great region from the Ohio to the 
Floridas had been wrested from the United States, would 
be a simple military stroke. In the combined territory 
an army of twenty thousand men could be raised. As for 
the American government, it would have enough to do to 
keep together what would be left, without attempting a 
war to restrain her troublesome border districts from 
seceding. 

As Miro looked at it, the realization of the plan would 
restore Spain's waning prestige on the continent, and be 
a glorifying stroke for himself ; but his range of vision 
was not the same as Wilkinson's. However, he took the 
latter at his offer, and they immediately set at work "mak- 
ing out the papers." If it were not for those papers, and 
the letters which the Governor received from Wilkinson, 



30 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the fact of the conspiracy would never have been proved 
to the convincing of the American people of the depths 
of Wilkinson's villainy. All other proofs he took care to 
destroy or vitiate. No plotter was ever more cunning at 
covering up the tracks he left in the path? of obloquy. 
He was a long calculator, was Wilkinson, and the com- 
binations of guile which he operated are often as puzzling 
as they are amazing. 

During his long stay at New Orleans, on his first visit, 
he reckoned that suspicions would go out, and that they 
might reach Washington. So he cultivated the intimacy 
of one Daniel Clark, at that time assistant to the Secre- 
tary of the Province. Clark was twenty-one years old, 
an Irishman by birth, but a naturalized Spanish citizen, 
and a shrewd fellow, as his career amply proves. To 
hoodwink the United States officials, Wilkinson induced 
Clark to write a memorial which some time later was 
addressed by the latter to the American Secretary of 
State, complaining that Wilkinson had by intimidation 
extorted from Governor Miro the privilege of trading to 
New Orleans, in the interest of the people of his Terri- 
tory ; thus making out a case for Wilkinson's patriotism, 
although not for his politeness to foreign neighbors. This 
memorial was of great value to Wilkinson years afterward, 
as will appear. 

Soon after arriving home, Wilkinson addressed a letter to 
Senor Gardoqui, the Spanish minister to the United States, 




Governor Don Estevan Miro 
Spanish Proiuncial Governor of Louisiana 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 31 

in which he discussed his negotiations with Governor Miro. 
In this letter he declared he had nothing to hope for from 
the Union, and that if his proposition to Miro were re- 
jected by Spain, he would open negotiations with Great 
Britain, which power had already been in communication 
with him on similar business. It is likely that he used 
this argument to hasten Miro's consent to his proposition 
in the first instance, and he now used it to induce the 
Spanish court to approve of Miro's decision. And proba- 
bly it was true, for Great Britain made the same proposi- 
tion, that is, a proposal to send a force to combine with the 
Americans of the Southwest for the conquest of Louisiana, 
to others ; it being this scheme which, a few years later, 
got Senator Blount of Tennessee on the gridiron. Any- 
way, Miro sent a glowing account of the prospect to 
his government, in which he wrote: "The delivering 
up of Kentucky into his Majesty's hands [meaning his 
Spanish Majesty], which is the main object to which 
Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely, would 
foi'ever constitute this Province a rampart for the protec- 
tion of New Spain."" Texas was then called New Spain. 

Miro at the same time advised against the colonization 
enterprises which Minister Gardoqui, at Philadelphia, was 
approving, including the opening of Louisiana to trade 
with Americans under a twenty-five per cent tariff. A 
grant had already been given Colonel George D. Morgan, 
another Revolutionary veteran, who founded New Madrid 



32 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

under its authority. This also displeased Wilkinson, who 
feared Morgan was treading on his preserves. He wrote 
Miro his objections, which that functionary thought reason- 
able, for he advised his government that the colonization 
plans, which Gardoqui had placed in the hands of one 
D'Arges, would conflict with General Wilkinson's. He 
stated further that if the}^ were continued, D'Arges might 
expose the general's projects and cause Wilkinson to be 
arrested; that Wilkinson objected to anyone else partic- 
ipating in a confidential proceeding upon which depended 
his life and honor. Continuing Miro said : 

" Hence I consider as a misfortune the project of 
D'Arges, because I look upon the commercial franchises 
which he has obtained for the western colonists .... as 
destructive of the great design which has been conceived ! 
The western people would no longer have any reason to 
emigrate, if they were put in possession of a free trade 
with us. This is the reason why this privilege should 
be granted only to a few individuals having influence 
among them, as is suggested in Wilkinson's memorial ; 
because, on their seeing this advantage bestowed on these 
few, they might be easily persuaded to acquire the like 
by becoming Spanish subjects. ... I can conceive of but 
one case which would justify the granting to those people 
the free exercise of their religion ; that is, if Kentucky 
could not be prevailed upon to give herself up to his 
Majesty without this condition." 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 33 

But the question of religion did not trouble Wilkinson. 
He could swear on the holy evangelists of Almighty God 
quite as impressively as a Catholic as anything else. He 
already was talking of becoming a Spaniard. Among his 
first letters to Miro he said : " I have collected much 
European and American news, and have made various in- 
teresting observations for our political designs. It would 
take a volume to tell you all. I pray you to content your- 
self with this assurance — all my predictions are verifying 
themselves, and not a measure is taken on both sides of 
the mountains which does not conspire to favor ours. . . . 
I beg you to be easy, and to be satisfied that nothing 
shall deter me from attending exclusively to the object 
we have in hand ; and I am convinced that the success of 
our plan will depend on the disposition of the court." 

And then, to show how smooth a Spaniard he had 
already become, he turns off this benediction — "I take 
leave of you with the most ardent prayers to the Almighty 
for your spiritual and temporal welfare, and I beg to 
subscribe myself your unalterably devoted friend, and your 
most faithful, humble, and obliged servant." 

In this business of fomenting treason among his country- 
men Wilkinson became a regular pensionary of Spain. 
That Miro had some doubts, and hesitated awhile before 
putting up any money, is shown by his letters. Finally, 
Wilkinson sent a certain Major Isaac Dunn down to 
New Orleans with a shipment of produce and a letter 

3 



34 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

introducing him to the governor as an old army comrade 
in whose honor, discretion, and talents he placed great 
reliance. Wilkinson always underlined honor. He had 
chosen Dunn as a fit auxiliary to their political designs, 
the same being embraced by him with cordiality. This 
man seems to have impressed Miro favorably, and he con- 
firmed all that Wilkinson had declared. He had heard 
it expressed by their most distinguished citizens, had 
Dunn, that the direction of the current of their rivers 
pointed clearly to the power to which they (the Americans) 
ought to ally themselves. The same, of course, being 
Spain. 

In stating these circumstances, Governor Miro tells us 
more about Wilkinson. He says he had no money ; that 
he borrowed $3000 on his first visit to New Orleans, and 
begged the governor not to seize his cargo, which had 
cost $7000 in Kentucky, and on which he was counting to 
pay his debts. " He seems candid, and I hear good reports 
of him, but he may be seeking to enrich himself at our 
expense by inflating us with vain hopes and promises. 
But I concluded to humor him." 

Later Miro wrote that he was more assured. He heard 
from various sources of the work in Kentucky, and of 
Wilkinson's utterances reflecting on the Federal govern- 
ment. Thus Wilkinson began to draw Spanish gold, and 
became an emissary of Spain in the conspiracy of his own 
hatching to disrupt the Union. He continued his mer- 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 35 

chandising, sending cargoes of bacon, whiskey, pink-root, 
cowbells, pelts, hickory-nut oil, and other products to 
New Orleans, where he now had Daniel Clark as a factor, 
and must have made money. On one deal he was enabled 
to buy a boat-load of stores to the amount of $18,246 
with the proceeds of a cargo that cost him about $7000. 
If the result of this traffic were known to the people of 
Kentucky — and a good many probably did know some- 
thing about it — it must have had its influence in inclin- 
ing them toward Spanish allegiance. Kentucky, now a 
part of Virginia, was preparing for separate statehood. 
Several conventions were held to devise a constitution, at 
one of which Wilkinson read what he represented as the 
compact he had made with Miro, but it was divested of 
its most treasonable passages. Yet it advocated the 
separation of Kentucky from the Union, and invoked the 
aid of Spain. Then he wrote Miro that the convention 
had received it with approval ; and Miro observed that 
Wilkinson had so bound himself that, should he not be 
able to obtain the separation of Kentucky from the 
United States, he could no longer live there. Miro knew 
treason when he saw it. 

It was a fact that the scheme had involved a num- 
ber of other prominent citizens almost as deeply as him- 
self. He made especial mention of Colonel Alex. Leatt 
Bullitt ; HaiTy Innes, then attorney general, afterward 
a Federal judge ; John Brown, afterward member of 



36 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Congress ; and Judge Benjamin Sebastian. The last 
named also became a Spanish pensionary. Wilkinson 
informed Miro that, as soon as the State government 
was organized, they would name a political agent with 
power to treat with him on the change of sovereignty. 
In the meantime he hoped to receive his Excellency's 
orders, " which I will do my utmost to execute."" 

" I don't anticipate any obstacle from Congress, 
because under the present Federal compact that body 
can neither dispose of men nor money, and the new gov- 
ernment, should it establish itself, will have to encounter 
difficulties which will keep it weak for three or four 
years, before the expiration of which I have good 
grounds to hope that we shall have completed our 
negotiations, and shall have become too strong to be 
subjected by any force that may be sent against us." 

That paragraph explains a great deal of what was 
on Wilkinson's mind, and in part it expressed the 
feeling and belief of thousands : distrust in the new 
government, doubt of its efficiency, and readiness to 
take advantage of its infantile weakness — before the 
constitution was adopted. 

About this time Martin Navarro, who had been 
intendant-general of Louisiana, struck off a white-hot 
prophecy. He was about to return to Spain, his office 
having been consolidated with the governorship for the 
purpose of giving Miro unshackled facilities to conduct 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 37 

the intrigue, the policy on both sides being to keep 
the affair in as few hands as possible. Navarro's last 
despatch was a memorial to his sovereign, at the request 
of the secretary of the department of the Indies. In 
this paper he pointed to the dangers, present and pos- 
sible, which Spain had to apprehend " from the new 
nation of thirteen provinces now federated in one ambi- 
tious giant thirsty for conquest, and which would not 
rest content till he has extended his domain across the 
continent, and bathed his vigorous young limbs in the 
placid waters of the Pacific."" * 

That is not so bad for a Spaniard in 1790. Then 
Senor Navarro ventured some advisory suggestions. 
Could the expansion of the new giant be prevented? 
Yes — by severing the new Union in time ; by dividing 
from the Atlantic States the expansive West, where 
vast power was now slumbering in the lap of the wil- 
derness. And the best way to do this was for Spain 
to reverse her former policy, and grant every commercial 
privilege to the Western region. 

Those were the words of a statesman, and they at 
least had the effect of strengthening the Madrid gov- 
ernment in backing Miro. D'Arges received instruc- 
tions to assist to his utmost the plan to divide the 
United States. Wilkinson, in his letters, several times 
expressed grave fears of detection ; declared his lack of 
confidence of the Colonel Morgan who had received a 



38 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

grant of twenty square miles; said he had set a spy 
on Morgan, who was overstepping his authority ; and 
complained of the bad treatment both he and Morgan 
got from Washington and the Congress. He declared 
that all those who were put in Federal offices were 
enemies of Spain, that Congress suspected him and 
spied upon his movements. " Consequently," he con- 
tinued plaintively, "the avowed intention on my part 
to induce these people here to separate from the 
Union before a majority of them show a disposition to 
support me, would endanger my personal security. My 
situation is mortally painful, because, while I abhor all 
duplicity, I am obliged to dissemble.*" 

One can almost hear Miro chuckle to himself as he 
read that. Yet in it he discerned a weakening on 
Wilkinson's part, and answered him caustically to con- 
tinue to dissemble and not try to be a Spaniard. 
He continued, however, to pay Wilkinson $2000 a year 
to coddle the Kentuckjans Spanishwise ; and, lacking 
full faith in his sincerity, he got into secret communi- 
cation with Judge Sebastian, one of Wilkinson's trusted 
associates, on the same business, and paid him an equal 
stipend to spy on Wilkinson. At the same time the 
latter was bribing Clark at New Orleans to watch the 
antics of the governor ; and thus the intrigue went 
merrily on. 



CHAPTER II 



Plots for Disunion — Genet, " Citizen'''' Minister from France, Arrives 
— Attempts to Raise an Army of Conquest in America — Much 
Disl(yyaUy — Bold Schemes Frustrated. 

HILE Wilkinson, 
whose hope saw the 
glimmer of sovereign 
power over a vast re- 
gion, conspired with 
Miro, and trafficked 
and caroused with 
the restless frontiers- 
men, there were 
other things happen- 
ing along the South- 
ern border. There 
was also discontent 
in Georgia, where 
valuable slaves had 
too frequent a habit of dashing for freedom over into 
Spanish Florida among the everglades, whence it was next 
to impossible to hunt down and recover them. Besides, 
no matter how fertile their own valleys, or how abundant 
the game in their forests, many of the Georgian pioneers 




40 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

longed for the lands about which they heard such glowing 
accounts, lying far to the westward. 

This desire for new possessions, or envy of the Spaniards, 
resulted in 1785 in an exodus of several hundred Georgi- 
ans over into the Spanish country near Natchez. They 
were led by one Thomas Green, who seems to have been a 
"colonist"" of high daring and low ethics. With their 
families, their baggage, their oxen, and slaves, they trav- 
ersed forest and morass, intending to stay and possess 
the soil whenever they found it suitable, regardless of pre- 
occupancy. The wooded hills near the Mississippi, where 
nature had struck a balance between mountain and plain, 
seemed desirable. There they unyoked, and parcelled out 
the land among themselves. True, the district was in- 
habited, for there was a Spanish fort at Natchez ; and the 
interlopers seem to have shown the forbearance of not 
shooting the commandant, although that official refused 
to recognize their authority. 

It does not lessen the transgression that the territory 
was claimed by the United States as having been acquired 
from Great Britain after the war. Spain had conquered 
it from the English by hai'd fighting during the Revolu- 
tion, and had possession. The Spanish declaration that 
Britain could not cede territory she did not possess prob- 
ably would have been granted as reasonable by anybody 
but Americans. However, the interlopers set up a govern- 
ment and " elected "" Green Governor. His proclamation 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 41 

indicates that he was in the loose enjoyment of a sub- 
normal conscience, and no doubt his followers were all 
pretty much like him. 

Mr. Gardoqui, Spain''s representative at Washington, 
protested against this forcible intrusion, and Congress, 
after learning the facts, passed an act of wonderment at 
the audacity of the Georgians. " Although they [Con- 
gress] conceive that they have an undoubted right to all 
the territory specified, yet they view with real concern the 
unaccountable attempt of any individuals of these States 
to disturb the peace between the two nations ; and that 
the delegates from Georgia should disavow the appoint- 
ment of Thomas Green as governor." 

This must have been crushing to the timid and sensitive 
spirit of the said Green, even if Congress and Georgia and 
the delegates let it go at that, and left him and his fel- 
lows in the disputed territory, contesting authority with 
the Spanish commandant. It likewise must have been 
edifying to Mr. Gardoqui to note the shock of grief 
Congress suffered over the affair. 

There was great exasperation over the report that Con- 
gress had proposed a compromise with Spain over the 
Mississippi, consenting it should remain closed to Ameri- 
can commerce for twenty-five years, after that to be open 
to all. Spain would not agree. But the Western people 
were angry, and began to arm. They were secretly en- 
couraged by England, still at war with Spain, and ready 



42 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

also to stab the young Republic. George Rogers Clark 
was the person through whom she schemed. He began 
enlisting militia along the Ohio, and seizing Spanish prop- 
erty between Fort Vincennes and the Mississippi. Thomas 
Green, the next year after his invasion of the Natchez dis- 
trict, also began preparation for more warlike enterprises. 
He recruited a company of militia at what is now Louis- 
ville, and another on the Cumberland, which he and 
others armed and drilled. That these determined men 
had objects in view beyond the mere forcing of open navi- 
gation of the great river, is hardly a matter of doubt. A 
secret circular letter sent from Ohio Falls (Louisville) in- 
dicated a much larger plan, and a letter written Dec. 4, 
1786, from the same place by a prominent citizen — attrib- 
uted by some to Thomas Green — to a New England 
friend, echoes the rumblings of the time : 

" We can raise twenty thousand troops this side of the 
Alleghanies, and the annual increase of them by immigra- 
tion is from two thousand to four thousand. We have 
taken all the goods belonging to the Spanish merchants 
at Post Vincennes and on the Illinois, and are deter- 
mined they shall not trade up the river, provided they will 
not let us trade down it. Preparations are now making 
here (if necessary) to drive the Spaniards from their settle- 
ments at the mouth of the Mississippi. In case we are 
not countenanced and succored by the United States (if 
we need it) our allegiance will he thrown off and some other 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 43 

power applied to. Great Britain stands ready with open 
arms to receive and support us. They have already offered 
to open their resources for our supplies. When once re- 
united to them, farewell, a long farewell to all your boasted 
greatness ! The province of Canada and the inhabitants 
of these waters [rivers] of themselves in time will be able 
to conquer you [people east of the Alleghanies]. You 
are as ignorant of this country as Great Britain was of 
America." 

And then, referring to the proposed treaty-compromise 
to block up the Mississippi for twenty-five years to all 
Americans, and which was erroneously reported to have 
been entered into, the writer declared it had given the 
West a shock. " To sell us and make us vassals to the 
merciless Spaniards is a grievance not to be borne." 

A veteran of the Revolution named Sullivan wrote that 
*' the country abounds with the seeds of war." It looked 
as though the patriotism of the Western people was all 
out. Wilkinson, who had himself been in communication 
with the British (or was soon afterward), grew jealous 
of General Clark, and in a letter remarked : " Clark is 
playing hell — raising a regiment of his own. Seized a 
Spanish boat and stores worth $20,000. I laid a plot 
to get the whole seized and secured for the owners." A 
protest against Clark'^s acts was made by the Kentuckv 
legislature — for eastern consumption. Harry Innes, one 
of Wilkinson's co-conspirators, and then attorney general, 



44 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

wrote to Governor Randolph of Virginia : " I am decidedly 
of the opinion that the Western country will, in a few 
years, revolt from the Union and endeavor to enact an 
independent government, for, under the present system, we 
can not exert our strength ; neither does Congress seem 
disposed to protect us. . . I have just dropped this hint 
to your Excellency for reflection." 

Both this Harry Innes and his brother James, who also 
was an office-holder at the time, were in the movement, 
imbued with the spirit of revolt, and no doubt felt sure of 
its ultimate success. Harry's conduct at this time and for 
long afterward could have been prompted by no worthier 
motive. Twenty years later he was charged by a news- 
paper with having been in such a conspiracy with General 
Wilkinson, Judge Sebastian, and John Brown, the latter 
a member of Congress ; and the three of them hired a 
lawyer to write and publish a pamphlet attempting to 
exonerate them, to whom they furnished a garbled copy 
of the letter to Randolph, leaving out " revolt from the 
Union," and other incriminating phrases, and making it 
appear by argument that Innes merely advocated the 
separation of Kentucky as a Territory from Virginia, and 
setting up her own State government. This is typical of 
the methods employed by the treason-schemers of that sec- 
tion and era, and of their later apologists. 

All the early plottings for the dismemberment of the 
Union contemplated a division between the East and the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 45 

West, not between the North and the South, — a fact 
made interesting by later efforts at secession. 

The finger-marks of James Wilkinson are apparent 
throughout this dark record. On April 11, 1789, Lord 
Dorchester, Governor General of Canada, wrote from 
Quebec to Lord Sydney in England, telling him of the 
disaffection of the Americans of the Southwest, and the 
possibility of detaching them from the United States ; 
he also enclosed a paper giving their political reflections 
" by a Gentleman of Kentucky."" 

Now in these " reflections," as pointed out by Thomas 
Marshall Green in his " Spanish Conspiracy," there is not 
an idea expressed, hardly a sentiment or argument uttered, 
that does not appear in identical or very similar phrasing 
in Wilkinson's subsequent letters to the Spanish Governor 
Miro, when he was entering into his treasonable compact 
with him, — germs from the same fountain of treason. 

In 1789 Wilkinson asked for a large grant of land in 
Louisiana, — "a place of refuge for myself and adherents 
in case it should be necessary for us to retire from this 
country in order to avoid the resentment of Congress." 
If he was going to be " a good Spaniard," why should n't 
he have a Spanish estate ? But Miro thought he would 
better remain in Kentucky till the contemplated alliance 
with Spain was effected. Wilkinson was " working " the 
Governor continually, and Miro recommended that the 
amount which the general claimed to have expended in 



46 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

furtliering the conspiracy, $5000, be refunded to him, and 
also that he be given $2500 more to enable him to com- 
plete the corruption of some of his associates. He got 
other large sums from Miro, as will be seen later on the testi- 
mony of Daniel Clark. The comedy element of this whole 
wretched intrigue is glimpsed from the financial side. 

Wilkinson came to Kentucky " a needy and unscrupulous 
adventurer." He brought his wife to the miserable tavern 
at Lexington, a typical hostelry of the Southwest in early 
times, where fried pork was served three times a day, and 
whiskey continuously. He loitered in the ill-smelling 
barroom with the " gentlemen " of the backwoods town, 
the best of whom spent hours a day at cards, constantly 
chewing tobacco, drinking, spitting, and most of them 
profaning at every breath. After he " got to going '' 
with the Spaniards, he set up a house and equipage, gave 
parties, talked loudly about his Mississippi River enter- 
prises, always hinting at advantages to be gained by being 
joined to Louisiana, and of course gambling heavier than 
ever. This probably accounts for his usually being in 
financial embarrassment, for he always had a liberal in- 
come. General St. Clair heard of his scheming and wrote 
Major Dunn, now Wilkinson's partner, expressing regret, 
and asking him to use his influence to stop the general's 
disloyalty. Dunn sent the letter to Wilkinson, who sent 
a copy of it to Miro as evidence that he was earning his 
pension. 




General James Wilkinson 
An instigator of plots with Spanish Governors 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 47 

His despatches to Miro were can'ied in a small trunk 
weighted with rocks, and orders were given the men to 
sink it in case there arose any danger of the contents 
falling into other hands. Once, in 1794, Wilkinson 
sent a man named Owen to New Orleans to receive the 
treason stipend due him. On the way back, Owen was 
murdered on the Ohio River by the boatmen, either 
Spanish or French, who seized the money, amount- 
ing to about $6000. Three of the murderers were 
caught near Frankfort and brought before Federal 
Judge Innes. Now this Harry Innes was Wilkin- 
son's right bower, probably slated to be Minister of 
State in the new government under him. Some of the 
corruption fund taken by the robbers would no doubt 
have gone into his pocket — a little of it. And the 
murdered man had been his personal friend ; in fact, 
had been recommended by him for the confidential 
mission. 

Yet when those three cutthroats were brought before 
Innes he dared not try them. He feared the trial 
would uncover the real facts about the lucre — which 
might prove exceedingly embarrassing for the judge. 
Not only himself, if he had wanted to be self-sacrificing, 
but there was the whole Kentucky clique that might 
be exposed, including his friend, Judge Sebastian. 
So he sent them under guard to Wilkinson, who was 
then at Fort Washington (Cincinnati), with the flimsy 



48 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

statement that the crime had been committed on Span- 
ish territory, and therefore outside of his jurisdiction. 
That was absurdly untrue, as his jurisdiction extended 
up and down both sides of the Ohio, and the scene of 
the crime was far from Spanish land. But it was as 
good an excuse as any for Wilkinson, who grasped the 
situation in a twinkling. It is safe to say that 
the judge felt confidence in Wilkinson's resources for 
disposing of them all safely enough ; and ordinarily 
such confidence would have been justified. But a 
jumble will sometimes occur in the shrewdest of plans. 
Wilkinson was on intimate terms with the com- 
mandant at New Madrid, the nearest Spanish post. 
This officer probably knew something of Wilkinson's 
affiliations with the Spaniards, at least the general felt 
he could trust him to perform a friendly duty ; so he 
sent the red-handed rascals down to him, with a state- 
ment of the case. This meant, of course, a summary 
execution of them without any troublesome exposures 
from trial. On the way down, however, while pass- 
ing Fort Massac, an American post, the officer com- 
manding there interfered. Not liking the murky look 
of things he arrested the party, and sent over to New 
Madrid for an interpreter to interrogate the prisoners, 
who conveniently declined to understand or express 
themselves in English. The Spanish commandant got 
an inkling of the circumstances in some way and sent 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 49 

a "fixed" interpreter, who either did not divulge the 
confessions made by the trio, or twisted the answers so 
as to persuade the officer that they were innocent ; 
and all three of the villains were discharged. 

The adoption of the Constitution in 1789 and the 
election of Washington as President steadied things 
just a little throughout the Southwest, the result more 
of confidence in the man than in the instrument. But 
whatever pacification might have resulted — whatever 
setback the promoters of disunion might have experi- 
enced from these providential happenings — was soon 
to be more than counterbalanced by a new and most 
aggravating element of mischief. This was precipitated 
upon the country by the chaotic government of France 
in the person of Charles Edmond Genet — " Citizen " 
Genet, most commonly called — minister of the Robes- 
pierre republic. That rattle-headed, insolent, and alto- 
gether insufferable egotist landed on the American 
shore not so much with the idea of representing France 
here as with the conviction that he was ordained to 
take control of the government and country, and con- 
duct them as auxiliaries of the French terrorists. He 
was a young man with some experience as a diplomat, 
but he seemed to be ignorant of the elementary princi- 
ples of diplomacy. Sponge-brained and garrulous, he 
was also saturated with the violent democratic doctrines 
then raging in France, and was impressive in the cant 

4 



50 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

of " liberty and fraternity."" His notion was that, as 
France had aided America in her struggle, America 
must now become an ally with France in her war with 
Europe. 

The administration, being now at peace with all nations, 
adopted a policy of neutrality with respect to France and 
her troubles, and already was being blackguarded by a 
faction of hotheads before Genet arrived. The " citizen " 
minister did not land at the seat of government, but at 
Charleston, where he found many ready partisans. He 
brought with him four hundred commissions in blank, which 
he was authorized to bestow upon leaders of the army 
which he was to raise against the English and Spanish on 
this continent — France being at war with both those 
nations. The very first thing, he began to distribute 
them to the South Carolinians, and to begin the organiza- 
tion of troops. Before he had been there long he learned 
about the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants beyond the 
mountains westward, and seemed to assume that it was a 
provision of Providence to aid him in his grand scheme 
of mobilization. Through them he would surely over- 
throw Spanish sovereignty in Louisiana and Florida ; and 
this led directly to the larger scheme of establishing an 
independent nation out of those provinces and such States 
and Territories as he could induce to secede from the 
Union, — a nation which would be dependent on France, 
with Genet as " citizen ''' ruler. 




"Citizen" Genet 
Minister from France to the United States 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 51 

Two expeditions to this end were planned by him while 
he was at Charleston. Distinguished citizens engaged in 
them. The brotherly-love excitement spread. The desire 
to invade Florida prevailed in Georgia to an alarming 
extent. 

Colonel Elijah Clarke, in that State, a veteran of the 
Revolution, was given a commission of brigadier-general 
in the French army, and soon was enthusiastically em- 
ployed at recruiting and making military preparations. 
Genet also supplied him with funds, as he did others. 
After getting things thus to moving nicely the minister 
went on to Philadelphia, meeting ovations all along the 
way. Very much to his astonishment the administration 
did not abdicate in his favor. Neutrality ! Gods and 
guillotines ! What was America for, if not to be ally of 
France ? Spirit of equality, and democracy, and brotherly 
love by decapitation ! Fraternity and frenzy ! And so he 
stormed at the rebuffs he got. He was desperately scan- 
dalized at finding that Washington had a bust of Louis 
XVL, who had been his friend in a dark hour, and de- 
clared that Washington was trying to set up a monarchy. 
Seeing that the government frowned on his impertinence, 
he struck out in a sort of wilful competition, even threat- 
ening to appeal from Washington to the people. 

At Charleston he had found an efficient lieutenant in 
the French consul at that city, Michel Ange Bernard de 
Mangourit, a man much on the Genet model. The two 



52 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Frenchmen at once came into intimate relations with 
Governor Moultrie, of South Carolina, who gave Man- 
gourit letters of introduction to prominent men, and was 
in sympathy with their project. That commonwealth, from 
the formation of the Union, was always quick to the fore 
in any scheme to dismember it. Now, from Philadelphia 
Genet sent emissaries to the West and Southwest, to 
arouse the people to sympathy with France, and antipathy 
to their own country. Principal among these were 
Auguste La Chaise and his associates, Delpeau, Mathurin, 
and Gignoux. These agents were provided with funds. A 
" democratic society"" had been organized in Philadelphia, 
modelled on the Jacobin club in Paris. Other " dem- 
ocratic clubs'" were started throughout the country, in- 
cluding Georgetown, Paris, and Lexington, in Kentucky ; 
these clubs being meeting-places for the agitators who 
were displeased with their government for any cause. 
The members wore white cockades to show their love for 
France, sang French revolutionary songs, or made a horrid 
effort at it, denounced every policy designed to promote 
peace and order, and encouraged resistance to taxes. 
Finally they were incited by Genefs emissaries to open 
riot and revolt ; and then the mustering began. George 
Rogers Clark was given a commission as brigadier-general 
in the French army and was to have command of the 
levies of this region. His apologists have explained that 
his engagement in this lawless enterprise was done in a 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 53 

moment of weakness ; tliat he was inveigled with the 
assurance that " a major-general in the armies of France, 
and commander-in-chief of the revolutionary legion on the 
Mississippi " was something finer than he could hope for in 
any other service. The fact is he had become a hard 
drinker, and his principles were loose. 

As a French brigadier, Clark issued proposals for vol- 
unteers for the reduction of the Spanish forts along the 
Mississippi, etc. Flattering inducements were offered. 
All volunteers were to be entitled to one thousand acres 
of land each ; those who served one year were to have 
two thousand acres ; those who served three years, or 
during the war between France and Spain, three thousand 
acres of any unoccupied land that should be conquered, 
officers in proportion. The pay was to be the same as 
that of " other French troops." All lawful plunder was 
to be equally divided according to the customs of war, and 
every soldier who entered the service was to be given the 
choice of taking the land or cash pay at one dollar per 
day. Clark had authority to make military appointments 
in the name of the French republic, and he issued a lot of 
commissions — Major Williamson, Colonel Can*, Captain 
Bird, etc. 

Never was a more rapacious scheme of pillage and 
conquest projected. And the encouragement it received 
from the Western people, not only the reckless irrespon- 
sibles, but men of property and high officials, is astounding. 



54 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Kentucky had lately been admitted to the Union as a 
State. Her first governor was Colonel Isaac Shelby. He 
had won his title in the War of Independence, serving 
with distinction at King''s Mountain, and on Marion's 
memorable campaign. He had been a member of the 
legislature of North Carolina, and was regarded a stanch 
patriot, who had done real fighting. Yet now, when the 
very life of the Union hung in the balance, when Wash- 
ington was beset with troubles on every hand — dis- 
sensions in the cabinet, envy and distrust in nearly every 
State, and his old enemy plotting on the Northern borders 
— knowing all this, the old soldier Shelby, now a gov- 
ernor, hearkened to the demagogues, became infected with 
the excitement over French " liberty " and the prospect of 
conquest, and was ready to sanction an enterprise that 
would disgrace his country and his own fair name. 

Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, notified Shelby that 
Genet was sending his agents to Kentucky, and cautioned 
him to prevent them from carrying out his designs. 
Shelby, replied, — "I think it my duty to assure you 
that I shall be particularly attentive to prevent any 
attempts of the nature of the expedition from this 
country. I am well persuaded at present none such is 
contemplated in this State,"" etc. That was Oct. 5, 1793. 
On Nov. 6, Jefferson wrote Shelby again not to permit the 
French emissaries to excite the people to hostile acts 
against Spain. The Kentucky legislature met that month, 




General George Rogers Clark 

Revolutionary hero who espoused Genet's cause 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 55 

and in his message Shelby did not once mention Jefferson's 
instructions, in truth did not even refer to the French 
scheme, although it was then under way. Nor did he 
issue any proclamation against it. He received communi- 
cations from La Chaise, one of which advised him he had 
letters to him (the Governor) from Genet, and saying he 
would send him a copy of "our excellent constitution 
which has been generally accepted." 

So they were going to have a constitutional govern- 
ment anyway, having drafted the constitution before hav- 
ing anything to apply it to. Judges Innes and Sebastian 
(Wilkinson's associates) and Governor Shelby connived at 
the marauding outfit. In January, 1794, Shelby wrote the 
Secretary of State in a different tone from his first letter. 
It professed to put the President in possession of all facts 
relating to the uprising, yet concealed from him the cor- 
respondence he had had with La Chaise and Delpeau, and 
of the letters sent to him by Genet. It really suggested 
also that nothing had been done, in spite of Clark's pro- 
posals for enlistment, and all the preparations that were 
going on. He no doubt hoped the expedition would get 
on its way before the President could restrain it. He 
now quibbled about his authority. 

"I have grave doubts," he wrote Jefferson, "even if 
General Clark and the Frenchmen attempt to carry this 
plan into execution, whether there is any legal authority to 
restrain or punish them, at least before they have actually 



56 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

accomplished it," and went on pettifogging about there 
being no law to punish unlawful intent. The enlistments 
were going on while the legislature was in session. No 
action against it was talcen by that body. 

In the Spring of 1794, an agent of General Elijah Clarke, 
of Georgia, was at Lexington engaged in the purchase of five 
hundred pounds of powder, one ton of cannon balls, and 
provisions to be ready for shipment in boats by April 15. 
Boat-builders and other artisans were busy under orders 
for the expedition. Some of the United States troops 
guarding the frontier against Indians deserted to join 
the enterprise. Clarke is said to have had money from 
Genet, and some of the inhabitants of Lexington, if not 
otherwheres, secretly subscribed to the war fund. 

In March, 1794, Spanish commissioners laid before the 
Secretary of State a complaint that an expedition was pre- 
paring against East Florida ; that an American, Colonel 
Samuel Hammond, was to have command of it ; that one 
Captain Hammond was appointed to enroll the people in 
the county of Camden ; that the troops to be enlisted 
were to take an oath of fidelity to France ; and that a 
naval force was ready to act in concert with them. Also 
that there were in the county of Camden sixteen hundred 
cavalry in three divisions, under orders of Colonel Ham- 
mond, who had been appointed a brigadier general in the 
French service, who had the cavalry fully equipped and 
officered, with two large magazines of provisions and 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 57 

ammunition purchased by Abner Hammond, brother to the 
general, who had been commissioned colonel. And further, 
that there were three French frigates ready to sail from 
the port of Beaufort with one thousand or eleven hundred 
men on board, all to attack East Florida by sea and land. 

These frigates had sailed from Charleston and other 
Southern ports against the protest of the American 
government. The French sloop-of-war Las Casses an- 
chored off St. Marys, destined for Louisiana. Genet 
granted commissions to raise troops in Ohio, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, and probably 
in other States. It is estimated that over two thou- 
sand men were enrolled in the Southwest and partly 
armed before the President issued his proclamation 
warning the people of the consequences of engaging in 
such outlawry. Governor Mathews of Georgia also 
issued a proclamation against it, and the South Caro- 
lina legislature ordered an inquiry. But Shelby in 
Kentucky did nothing, although he had been ordered to 
use the militia if necessary. Finally Edmund Randolph, 
who succeeded Jefferson as Secretary of State, wrote the 
Governor sharply concerning his errors. Shelby, as well 
as the attorney general and other State officials, frater- 
nized with members of the rabid democratic insurrec- 
tionary clubs, some of them being members. 

Shelby's mind was in a state of moral degradation 
as to his official duties and responsibilities when he 



58 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

could apologize for and abet such an outrage against 
the peace, safety, and dignity of his country. He was 
a distiller, and a gentleman of that school. Like many 
others who bore the taint of disloyalty, he could in 
after years prate loud of patriotism. In 1812, in a 
Fourth of July address, he attempted to condone his 
queer conduct of this time, by explaining that he 
intended to impress on the government the importance 
of the navigation of the Mississippi, apparently having 
forgotten that negotiations to open it had at the time 
of this episode been long under way, and soon after 
were consummated. When questioned as to this speech, 
Shelby admitted there was " some inconsistency " between 
his two letters to Jefferson, but excused himself by 
declaring he thought the whole scheme would fall to 
the ground without his interference ; and expressed his 
regret that he had for a moment kept the President 
uneasy. It amuses one to find that some Kentucky 
historians acquit him on that "explanation," and it 
astounds us to find that Monroe, when he became 
President in 1817, offered Shelby the war secretaryship, 
which he would not accept because of his advanced age. 
Well, the whole harebrained, treasonable enterprise 
did " fall through," but not because of any patriotic 
opposition in the South and West. At the request of 
President Washington, Genet was recalled by his gov- 
ernment, which declared the " citizen " had exceeded his 




Governor Isaac Shelby 
Of Kenturkif 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 59 

authority. When Fauchet, successor to Genet, arrived 
and denounced the warlike proceedings, Mangourit at 
Charleston could not credit it, and almost went into 
spasms over his disappointment. It was just in time 
to prevent a vigorous attack on East Florida. But the 
money stopped, Genet was out, and that ended it. 

Probably a parallel case cannot be found in history 
where a minister plenipotentiary, after openly insulting 
the government to which he was accredited, attempted 
to use his credentials to enroll an army in that country 
for the purpose of conquest over a third power with 
which his government was at war and the country in 
which he operated at peace. And when it is considered 
that his ultimate object was to found an independent 
government partly out of territory to be wrested from 
the friendly nation receiving him, it appears a case so 
monstrous as not likely ever to be repeated. 

Yet after his outrageous acts had been repudiated by 
his government, — acts so desperate that he dared not 
go home and face the consequences, — it seems incon- 
gruous that he should have become a respected Ameri- 
can citizen, marrying a daughter of Governor Clinton 
of New York. One of his biogi'aphers asserts that he 
became an ornament to society. Whether that was 
intended as a compliment to Genet or a reflection upon 
the society of his day is unimportant. 



CHAPTER HI 



Wilkinson, again in the Army, still Conspires with Spanish Governors 
— Disgrace of Senator Blount — Examples of Land Operations — 
Romantic Career of Renegade Bowles. 



URING the frenzy 
generated by Genet 
little was heard of 
Wilkinson. That 
Genet was auda- 
ciously infringing 
upon his own secret 
letters patent of 
treason, although 
with a differently 
decl ared object, 
caused him much 
chagrin. He was 
now in the army 
again, having re- 




entered the service in 1791 as a lieutenant-colonel, and 
was drawing a salary from the United States government 
under the sworn duty of protecting it, and another from 
Spain for promoting plans to shatter it. He was in charge 
of the militia alone; the Ohio. His tradinsr ventures 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 61 

ended in bankruptcy. He was always profligate, " with 
debts as numerous as his creditors were clamorous." 
There had been a change of governors in Louisiana, 
Carondelet having succeeded Miro, but the same rela- 
tions were maintained with Wilkinson. That explains 
why the latter did not appear in any way as a supporter 
of the Frenchman's scheme. He impressed upon the 
Spaniards that he was doing them noble service in dis- 
couraging the threatened invasion of their possessions — 
and requested corresponding rewards. So he really turned 
Genet's operation to his own advantage. 

Carondelet was not idle during the preparations for 
seizing his province. He began strengthening his forces 
and outposts for defence, and when the danger blew over 
he himself had contracted the Southwest-Empire fever. 
It appeared to him clear that he must attach a part of the 
American Republic or it would soon attach his province. 
He became, therefore, a more eager negotiator with the 
disgruntled Americans than Miro had been. He showed 
during the next decade that his Spanish provincial harp 
was one of a single string — division of the Union. 

Wilkinson and Carondelet, after a couple of years of 
plotting without changing the situation a great deal, ran 
against further ill-fortune ; for after long diplomatic fen- 
cing, a treaty between the United States and Spain was 
signed Oct. 20, 1795. This memorable treaty swept away 
the principal causes of complaint which had been alleged as 



62 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

a basis of Southwestern disloyalty. It fixed the boundary 
between the United States and Florida and provided for 
the appointment of a joint commission to survey it. It was 
stipulated in the same treaty that the Mississippi River 
should be open to the navigation of both nations from 
its source to the sea, and that the people of the United 
States would be permitted to use the port of New Orleans 
as a place of deposit for their shipments. 

But Governor Carondelet affected to take this treaty in 
a Pickwickian sense. He exhibited the true genius of his 
nationality by declaring it had been entered into by the 
King of Spain as a " court of finesse " — as a sop to the 
Americans till he could get rid of some of his pressing 
troubles nearer home, when he would assert his rights ; 
that is, he would repudiate it. True it was the Spaniards 
had been forced to yield as the only means of pacifying 
the American government, which was forced to turn 
the screws on to pacify its Western Territories. And so 
Spain began to seek to evade carrying out its provisions. 
Instead of dismantling the posts along the Mississippi, 
Carondelet set about more strongly fortifying those at 
Natchez, Walnut Hill, and Baton Rouge. This no doubt 
was done with the connivance of Wilkinson, the claim 
being made that it was necessary for the protection of 
the Spanish subjects against Indians ; when as a fact the 
Indians had been bribed to surround them, and so furnish 
the pretext. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 63 

Carondelet also had another pretext, and a truer argu- 
ment. He said he had information that the British in 
Canada were again conspiring with certain Americans in 
the Mississippi River districts for the organization of an 
expedition to descend that river and capture New Orleans. 
This was a fact. Wilkinson had no doubt kept his Excel- 
lency informed as to the overtures of the British in this 
direction. Governor Blount, of Tennessee, was implicated, 
to his regret, as will be seen further on. And oddly enough 
it was an Englishman, one Power, though naturalized in 
Louisiana, whom Carondelet selected as an agent to send 
to the people of Kentucky and Tennessee with direct 
proposals to shift their allegiance from the Union. Eng- 
land, France, and Spain all considered the people of that 
region as infected with treason at this period, and each 
bid against the other to buy them. 

Carondelet sent Power up the river to make his offer. 
About the only thing the people in that region had to 
complain of against their government now was the tax on 
whiskey, but that was a good deal — to them. Power went 
among them authorized to offer all kinds of commercial 
privileges and exemptions. In fact Carondelet promised 
them about everything he supposed they wanted. Power 
let it be known to the leading citizens that they could 
have $100,000 and the backing of Spanish troops if they 
would revolt. Wilkinson had again got into his easy 
habit of acquiring military promotions — his intrigue with 



64 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Spain did not interfere in the least. He was now a major- 
general. Power had $10,000 for him on this trip, which 
was secreted in barrels of sugar and bags of coffee. And 
he got it. 

"The army is devoted to their talented and brilliant 
commander" — this is what Power said to Wilkinson, 
apparently ignorant of past transactions ; " it requires 
but firmness and resolution on your part to render the 
Western people free and happy. Can a man of your 
superior genius prefer a subordinate and contracted 
position as the commander of the small and insignifi- 
cant army of the United States to the glory of being 
the founder of an empire, — the liberator of so many 
millions of his countrymen, — the Washington of the 
West ? Will not the people, at the slightest movement 
on your part, hail you as the chief of the new republic ? 
Would not your reputation alone enable you to raise 
an army which France and Spain would help you pay ? 
The eyes of the world are fixed on you . . . but 
should Spain be forced to execute the treaty of 1795, 
then the bright vision of independence for the Western 
people, and of the most exalted position and imperish- 
able renown for yourself must forever vanish ! " 

Now that was just the kind of thing Wilkinson 
liked ; it was as intoxicating to him as whiskey. But 
courage in the business had long since begun to fail 
him. The temper of the people had changed with the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 65 

opening of the river, and he could not lead them. He 
was aware that the suspicions of his government rested on 
him, and he desired to retain his command. He had for 
ten years been a recipient of favors from Spain, — money, 
privileges, tax exemptions, — but now he began to treat 
the Spaniards coolly, and advised them to accept the 
terms of the treaty. He also complained that the Span- 
ish governors had divulged his correspondence with 
them ; that he himself had burned the letters received, 
and destroyed the cipher used. Yet he had designs. 
He still hoped to be appointed Governor of the Natchez 
district. Then he would not lack an opportunity of 
realizing his long-cherished dream. 

As for the correspondence, Miro sent copies of Wil- 
kinson's letters, — all those in which he declared himself 
a good Spaniard, that he was devoting all his energies 
to effect a separation of Kentucky from the Union and 
its attachment to Louisiana, and in which he solicited 
and acknowledged the receipt of money for his traitorous 
work, — copies of all were sent to Spain. Most of the 
originals were in ciphei'. The copies are among the 
Madrid archives. Mr. Gayarre, the scholarly historian of 
Louisiana, states that some years ago copies of those docu- 
ments were made at the request of the Louisiana legis- 
lature, under supervision of Romulus Saunders, United 
States minister to Spain ; which copies are now in the 
office of the Secretary of State of Louisiana. 

5 



66 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

The British design referred to did not include a dis- 
memberment of the Union. Along with the papers 
transferred to Congress in relation to the Spanish busi- 
ness, was a copy of a letter from William Blount, then 
Governor of the Southwest Temtory, later a senator in 
Congress from Tennessee, addressed to one of the agents 
among the Cherokees, who sent it to the President. It 
was plain from this letter that Blount was engaged in 
an intrigue for joining the British in an expedition to 
capture New Orleans and the adjacent territory. Great 
Britain was to furnish the naval force, and Blount a regi- 
ment of frontiersmen and Indians. Hildreth gives a full 
report of this affair — the State historians of Tennessee 
barely allude to it. 

Blount was badly involved in land speculations in 
Tennessee, and had plans for unloading on an English 
company. He feared they would be blocked by the 
transfer of Louisiana with the outlet of the Mississippi 
to France, as it was now rumored was coming about. 

" Conceiving that it would be for the interest of the 
Western people, as well as for his own private benefit as 
a land speculator, that Louisiana should pass into the 
hands of England, he relied upon his influence with 
the backwoodsmen of Tennessee and with Southern 
Indians, among whom he had long acted as agent, 
to raise the necessary force. He had engaged as 
his chief codperator one Chisholm, a wild backwoodsman 




Governor William Blount 

Of Tennessee 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 67 

who hated the Spaniards because of his colHsions with 
them ; and in his letter, laid before Congress, he 
sought to engage the services of the Indian agent 
addressed. Upon this evidence the House voted to 
impeach Senator Blount, of which they sent up notice 
to the Senate. The Senate concurred and then required 
him to give security for his appearance in $20,000."" 

The British minister, Mr. Liston, was asked for an ex- 
planation of the matter, and he acknowledged having 
given Chisholm letters to English statesmen, who rejected 
the proposal, as Liston declared. Anyway, there was a 
great outcry against the seduction of British gold, which 
has frequently been heard since. 

The House having requested that till the impeachment 
should be decided Blount should be sequestered from his 
seat, the Senate, after hearing his counsel, proceeded to 
expel him. There was only one negative vote. His sure- 
ties had been his brother, also a congressman, and another 
member of the House, who surrendered him into custody 
and were discharged from their bond. But he was soon 
released on other surety to appear and answer to the 
charge at the next session. 

The Blounts were full of Southwestern bravado. The 
brother had already immortalized himself in Congress by 
calling for the yeas and nays on the complimentary address 
to Washington, and sent a challenge to Thatcher of 
Boston who had retorted, and who declined it. Hildreth 



68 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

says Congi'essman Blount acted in this affair the back- 
woods bully and blackguard. 

At the next session, Senator Blount not appearing, the 
sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, James Mathers, went to 
Knoxville to arrest him and take him to Philadelphia. 
After service of process upon Blount the sergeant-at-arms 
found it impossible to take him along. Blount refused to 
go, and everybody sided with him. Mathers found them 
all polite, and was treated more than civilly. He even 
became for several days Blount's guest, and was enter- 
tained by the State authorities. Finally he issued sum- 
mons for a posse to assist him. Not a man responded. 
He appealed to the United States marshal of the district, 
but that official modestly declared he had no influence in 
the community. It looked very much as if, however 
guilty the senator had been, they were all of his plane of 
morals. So Mathers went back to Philadelphia without 
his quarry. 

The impeachment trial in the Senate resulted in a dis- 
missal of the proceedings on the argument that Blount 
was no longer a senator, having been expelled, and that 
he should enjoy the right of a trial by jury in the State 
or district where the alleged crime had been committed. 
But in the House the case dragged through the whole ses- 
sion. Every obstacle was raised by members who feared 
such a precedent, perhaps for personal reasons. Out of 
the affair grew several disgraceful broils in the House. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 69 

Lyon, a Southern member, taking offence at a fancied 
insult by Griswold, of Connecticut, spat in his face. Next 
day Griswold pounced upon Lyon in his seat and gave 
him a beating with a cane. Then they clinched and went 
to the floor, where they punched and gouged and choked 
each other. Griswold landed topside of his antagonist, 
and at length was dragged off. Then the Speaker, who 
had looked on silently with the air of a referee at a Ten- 
nessee dog-fight, called the House to order. 

Some strait-laced member tried to cast a shadow over 
the entertainment by moving to expel the combatants, but 
it was lost, as was also a resolution of censure. It had 
been too diverting an incident. 

To lend greater piquancy to the impeachment matter, 
a senator of the legislature of Tennessee, which assembled 
about the same time, resigned in favor of Blount, who was 
then elected president of the State senate by a unanimous 
vote. And he filled that office while his trial proceeded 
in Congress. The people did not consider the act of 
which he was accused a punishable crime. The prosecu- 
tion popularized him, and he would have been elected 
Governor but for his early death. The whole episode 
forcibly illustrates the temper and ideas of the Southwest- 
ern people at that time. 

Blount's land " speculations "" were typical. For decades 
the principal medium of tricky financial schemes through- 
out the West and South was land. For years there were 



70 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

practically no preemption laws, and the first acts of Con- 
gress designed to protect the bona fide settler in his hold- 
ings, and prevent speculative monopolies of the public 
domain, fell far short of serving the purpose efficiently. 
The preemption bill which was passed during the Jack- 
son regime improved things, but no law has ever been de- 
vised to stop effectually the speculative pirates. During 
the whole development of the country the land-shark has 
been a pest and an object of hatred to the home-makers. 
He has robbed them without mercy. His wiles were 
terror and mystery to the honest settler, who not infre- 
quently undertook to clear them away with his shot-gun. 
In the early decades land-robbery was a fi-uitful source of 
violence, and at the bottom of most litigation. 

An intelligent traveller through the Southwest as 
late as 1834, explained in some detail some of the 
tricks of land-grabbing. After surveying the country 
into sections, land offices were established and sales 
advertised at certain times, the most desirable lands 
to go to the highest bidder. What remained unsold for 
want of bidders was open to be entered at the mini- 
mum price of $1.25 an acre. Nothing, apparently, 
could be fairer ; but sharp practice under the system 
was easy and constant. The settler would choose his 
section, build a cabin, make a clearing, plant a crop, 
and prepare to bid in his tract on sales-day. By 
conniving with the politicians and " fixing " things with 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 71 

the land agent, the " speculators " would go to such 
settlers and tell them they were going to bid against 
them for their lands. The pioneer had little money. 
He had only the alternative of abandoning his tract or 
of making a ruinous compromise. The latter was often 
done by arranging to let the sharks take the title from 
the government, the settler to get title from them. In- 
stead of getting their farms for the minimum govern- 
ment price, they would have to pay several times the 
amount in this way, and that usually meant securing 
the purchase money by a mortgage. " Thus is the once 
cheerful settler weighed down with a heavy debt that 
presses upon him and converts him into a slave to a 
set of unprincipled harpies." 

But that was not the most atrocious operation. If 
the settler refused to compromise, the speculator out- 
bid him. Under an apparently just regulation, if the 
pric« bid was not paid within a certain number of 
hours, the fact was stated at the opening of the 
sale the next morning, and the sale declared void. 
The settler, confident that the bidder against him would 
not put up the money, would wait for this. When 
the list of defalcations was read, " he is overjoyed to find 
his own section is among the lot, goes to the clerk as 
soon as the register is open, and directs his name to be 
put down as the purchaser at the minimum price of 
$1.25 an acre," which that individual is bound to do. 



72 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the tract remaining unsold by the defalcation. The 
clerk would inform him, however, that another person 
had just entered his name for that parcel. The de- 
luded and unfortunate home-maker saw that the clerk 
was a confederate of the sharpers, and that he was 
truly " buncoed," without benefit either of law or clergy. 
The writer quoted adds : " These vile transactions have 
been repeated too often, and in some instances the 
names of individuals have been coupled with them that 
ought to have been free from every taint of suspicion." 

But these were mere picayune enterprises compared to 
some of the earlier days, when the land-jobbers worked 
in companies. They operated frequently on the basis of 
grants. The scope and possibilities of some of the 
pioneer schemes were enough to make the most am- 
bitious real estate dealer of to-day feel like hiding his 
diminished head. It is worth while pausing to survey 
one or two of them. The whole object and ambition of 
the adventurers under review hinged on land-grabbing. 

Georgia claimed, under a charter from Charles II, 
all the territory from Savannah to the Mississippi 
between the thirty-first and thirty-fifth degrees of lati- 
tude. As early as 1783 she created the county of 
Bourbon — a territory somewhat smaller than Russia — 
including the settlements along the Mississippi. It 
indicates the vast assumption of State sovereignty 
when Governor Telfair approved an act of the general 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 73 

assembly authorizing the conditional sale of the great 
domain. Coincident with this act the South Carolina 
Yazoo Company was organized. Georgia sold to this 
company five million acres in the Mississippi territory 
for $60,000. Following hard after was the Virginia 
Yazoo Company, to which was sold seven million 
acres for $93,000. Next came the Tennessee Company, 
which got an allotment of three million five hundred 
thousand acres in northern Alabama for $46,000. To 
be sure, Spain claimed this territory — or at least the 
most of it — by conquest from England made under 
young Galvez during the American Revolution, and that 
nation and the United States were then negotiating to 
settle the disputed question of boundaries ; but that 
did not deter Georgia from going ahead as if she were 
a separate world power. It was understood that the 
Indians were to be dispossessed. Because of these 
"extraordinary sales," as the good Alabama historian, 
Pickett, calls them, there seemed to be impending a 
many-cornered collision between all the powers con- 
cerned. It all occurring in the days of rugged hon- 
esty, there is no room for suspicion, of course, that the 
members of the legislature or his Excellency the Gov- 
ernor had any other interest in the business than the 
promotion of civilization. 

Washington failed to appreciate the blessings latent 
in the sales, and unfeelingly put his veto on them by 



74 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

proclamation. But the Tennessee Company heeded it not. 
They built a blockhouse on Muscle Shoals Island, in the 
Tennessee River, and other strongholds, which they placed 
in command of one Zachariah Coxe, and prepared to sell 
off their lands to immigrants. But the audacious company 
overleaped itself. The government sent orders to Gov- 
ernor Blount to stop the proceeding ; and Blount, being 
interested in other land schemes, very willingly complied. 
He organized the Cherokee Indians, already complainants 
against the intruders, burnt the blockhouse, and drove 
Coxe and his speculators out. 

The South Carolina Yazoo Company had all the assur- 
ance its name suggests. This corporation raised troops 
in Kentucky, issued military commissions, and attempted 
to take the Natchez country from the Spaniards regardless 
of any action of government. It was perhaps as bold a 
movement as any corporation ever attempted on this conti- 
nent. The head and front of the pushing concern was a 
Doctor O'Fallon, and his actions seemed to indicate that 
he had ideas of an independent government. But the 
Spaniards made a loud protest to the Federal govern- 
ment, and by express orders of the President the cheeky 
O'Fallon was arrested. That put an end to the scheme. 
The companies defaulted on payments, — the promoters 
were not so innocent as to pay for anything they could 
not sell, — and the grants were declared void. On account 
of these transactions, Washington was abused some more 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 75 

as a tyrant, mostly by people who had lost money fitting 
out intended expeditions to the speculative promised lands. 

But in 1795 occurred the real, simon-pure Yazoo 
operation. The government decided that the districts 
involved in the old grants in right appertained to Georgia ; 
but, of course, that did not imply the right of that com- 
monwealth to make treaties and act as a distinct national 
power. However, as soon as the terms of the treaty be- 
tween the United States and Spain were announced, her 
real estate business took another boom. The Georgia Com- 
pany was organized. For $250,000 this company bought 
what now constitutes forty-one counties in Alabama 
and Mississippi. Then came the Georgia-Mississippi 
Company, and for $150,000 bought what is now thirty- 
four counties, and later a similar tract for $35,000. The 
Tennessee Company — probably a reorganization of the 
old concern of that name — took some thirteen counties 
for $60,000. These transactions totalled twenty-one mil- 
lion five hundred thousand acres for about $500,000. The 
purchasing companies, under the terms agreed upon, paid 
down one-fifth of the purchase price and secured titles. 

The annals of the period state that there was a good 
deal of excitement in the Georgia legislature when the 
acts were passed, and from the hints given therein it may 
be understood that "modern methods'" in financial legisla- 
tion were highly developed even then. But a great and 
menacing howl went up from the people, — the proletariat 



76 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

that is always " heading in " to make trouble. All over 
the States involved the protests rumbled and roared, till 
the Yazoo fairly faltered in its course. A great convention 
was held at Louisville (Ga.) which many prominent men 
attended, and where hundreds of petitions were read charg- 
ing vast fraud and conspiracy on the part of legislators and 
State officials. But in the face of all this, the corporations 
came forward and made payment in full for the lands. 

Washington was astounded. Congress passed a resolu- 
tion instructing the attorney -general to investigate the 
titles which the companies had got. However, that proved 
unnecessary. Before the chief law officer of the govern- 
ment got around to his work, the people of Georgia had 
elected a new legislature and governor. They "turned 
the rascals out."" Everybody went to Louisville again 
and paraded in a great procession. The " Yazoo act " 
was expunged from the records and, as the history runs, 
the bill itself was consumed in the public square by fire 
from heaven. This celestial caloric was obtained by 
using a sunglass on the document. 

And so, what was perhaps the most stupendous land- 
grab in the history of the States was frustrated by popular 
determination ; but many — hundreds, it is stated — had 
already moved to the lands, and the losses they sustained, 
together with all the litigation and vexation that resulted, 
must have been very serious. As for the State itself, the 
Federal government settled the matter with Georgia hy 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 77 

paying her $1,250,000 for the whole tract. In this dis- 
trict the United States subsequently recognized all prior 
Spanish and British grants, but not the Yazoo claims. 
After this adjustment the people were impatient for the 
survey of the boundary line, as provided for in the Spanish- 
American treaty. In fact, it was stipulated that commis- 
sioners should attend to this within six months after the 
ratification of the treaty. 

The stubbornness of Carondelet, before mentioned, de- 
layed the prosecution of the survey. Colonel Andrew 
Ellicott, on the part of the United States, and Don 
Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, on the part of Spain, were 
entrusted with the important undertaking. In spite of 
Spanish procrastination Ellicott ran up the American flag 
at Natchez, Gayoso, when called on, always pleaded 
ma)iana. He seems to have been a foolish person, for 
when the aroused Americans finally threatened an inva- 
sion, he issued a proclamation asking them to submit to 
the Spanish rule until all differences could be settled. 
But at last he got around to it, and the work proceeded. 
In this instance the threats of the settlers against the 
Spaniards were provoked, although there was hardly any 
time, from the War of Independence to the annexation 
of Texas and the Mexican War, that the Americans were 
not rudely, violently trespassing on Spanish or Mexican 
territory, and without just provocation seeking in some 
way or other to despoil the inhabitants. 



78 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

While he was a renegade and not an American citizen, 
no story of such aggressions should be told without in- 
cluding mention of that rare and interesting rascallion, 
William Augustus Bowles. A native of Maryland, he 
ran away and enlisted in the British army at fourteen. 
After a year"'s service against his countrymen, he sailed 
as ensign with a regiment to Jamaica and thence to Pensa- 
cola (1777). Growing impudent, he was degraded; so 
he flung his uniform into the sea and fled to the Indians. 
On the Tallapoosa he married the daughter of a chief, and 
acquired a high and bad influence over the red men. He 
led a band of Creeks to aid General Campbell against the 
Spaniards, when the latter made their brilliant campaign 
under Galvez. 

Then Bowles broke away from savage life and went to 
New York. He was a good deal of a genius ; became an 
actor, was also a portrait painter, and studied languages. 
He drifted on the waves of circumstances to the Bahamas, 
and ingratiated himself with the Governor, Lord Dunmore, 
who had just seized a schooner with six thousand piastres 
belonging to Panton and Leslie, a Georgia firm, as contra- 
band. The war being over, a British court ordered the 
schooner given back. This put Dunmore in high dudg- 
eon. He previously had a grudge against Panton, and he 
engaged Bowles to return to Georgia and work vengeance 
on him and his partners. Bowles soon was a sworn enemy 
of Panton, McGillivray, the Scotch, French, and all other 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 79 

kinds of Georgians. They ran him out, but with the help 
of Dunmore he organized a company of Indians for the 
nominal purpose of aiding them against aggression, but 
really to prey on the Spaniards in the interest of England. 
In this he had British support. 

Soon he began pirating on Panton's vessels, captured 
several, ran them up the bayous, and indulged in riotous 
luxury. From the schooners he got liquors, provisions, 
and other Georgia products, with which he debauched his 
followers and set up a revelry in the forests that startled 
the panthers. He was joined by one Willbanks, a refugee 
Tory from New York, and they pretended to have posses- 
sion of the country for the English. Finally, McGillivray 
captured Bowles, put him in chains, and sent him to 
Madrid. There he landed in a grewsome prison, dank 
and grim and noisome as centuries could make it, with 
the Spaniards very much against him. It looked to be 
the sunset of opportunity for Bowles. 

But when Colonel Ellicott, after vicissitudes by river and 
wild, having his horses stolen by savages and being him- 
self harshly threatened, finished running the line between 
Spanish and American possessions and reached the sea at 
Fox Point, he found a wrecked schooner of the British 
navy, and with its outfit was Bowles — General Bowles, 
so please you, by British commission. This seemed very 
odd, remembering that the dare-devil had been planted, 
away in a Spanish dungeon a couple of years before. 



80 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

This is the way it happened. It came to the ears of 
his most Christian Majesty, the King, that the daring 
pirate they had in the vault was a man of great influence 
among the Florida Indians, especially the Creeks. Then 
it occurred to the King that the desperate foe in captivity 
might be conciliated and turned to great advantage. So 
he offered him a military title and big pay to return to 
Florida in the Spanish service, and contribute to strength- 
ening the province by organizing the red warriors. But 
Bowles was sulky, and would not listen to it. The King, 
rather pleased at the spirit of the prisoner, then ordered 
that he be transferred from the dungeon to well-furnished 
apartments, provided with servants, and served with luxu- 
ries, with the idea of softening his rancor and winning 
him over. That seemed to Bowles too good to relinquish 
at once, so he continued to hold out, and to receive more 
tempting offers. "Perhaps they'll want to make me 
prime minister pretty soon," said Bowles ; and he tippled 
again, set those around him in a roar with mimicry and 
spicy jokes, and still swore hatred to the Spanish. 

After this had gone on for a while Bowles was thinking 
it about time to relent, when the guards came in with the 
shackles one day and fastened him up again. He had 
played his game too far ; all bids had been withdrawn ; 
and Bowles was hustled on board a prison ship, chained in, 
and ticketed for Manila. 

No doubt the man had really captivated some of the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 81 

Spaniards. Early writers assert that he had " a winning 
address and gentleness of mien which did not exclude, 
when occasion required it, the imposing and stern aspect 
of command. His was the sweetest of smiles, femininely 
beautiful, and indicative of the bubbling well of kindness 
within ; with the dark eyebrow that shaded at times the 
glance of fire. He was one of those impassioned beings, 
'demons in act, but gods at least in face,' whom Byron 
delighted to paint."" 

All the same, he was a bold, dangerous man ; and three 
nations knew it. He was taken to the Philippines, kept 
there some months, and was being returned for some pur- 
pose when he escaped at Ascension Island and made his 
way to London. He must have displayed his femininely 
beautiful smile quite as effectively here as at Madrid, for 
Pitt and the Duke of Portland took him up, listened to 
the story of his prowess among the Indians, and his undy- 
ing hate for Spain. He was the kind they needed at that 
date, so they commissioned him a brigadier, supplied him 
with money, and started him back to America to help 
worry their enemies on sea and land. 

He sailed for the big gulf, and preyed on the commerce 
of both Spain and Georgia. His ship had just been 
stranded by a hurricane when Ellicott came along. 
Bowles invited him to the wreck and got assistance from 
him, in return for which he gave the colonel a lot of charts 
and maps of Florida navigation. The two were good 



82 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

fellows together ; but Bowles still swore vengeance on both 
America and Spain. 

From here Bowles advanced inland at the head of a 
party of Indians, captured the fort at St. Marks, plun- 
dered his old friend Panton''s store, and subscribed himself 
" General William Augustus Bowles, director of the affairs 
of the Creek nation." But there was an American Colonel 
Hawkins who was out after him with a mixed troop of 
Americans and Spaniards, and who offered a reward for 
his capture. This had its influence on Bowles's friends> 
the Indians. They got up a great feast at Tuskegee, 
" where the old French Fort Tolouse stood,"" and Bowles 
and the Miccasoochy chiefs attended. When the orgy 
was deep, concealed Indians seized and pinioned Bowles, 
took him down the river, and camped with a guard over 
him. Even yet he had a chance. The guards fell asleep, 
Bowles gnawed his ropes off, got into the canoe, paddled 
noiselessly across to a canebrake, and escaped. But the 
Indians followed at daybreak, found the canoe, and cor- 
ralled him in the swamp. They conveyed him, for further 
reward, to Mobile, He was now nearing the end of his 
career. From Mobile he was sent to Havana, where he 
was immured in a dungeon of historic Morro castle, where 
he was kept several years, until he died. 



CHAPTER IV 



Wilkitison and Burr — Or eat Panic and Little Danger — Burrs Arrest 
— Wilkinsons Baseness — The Story of Madeline. 

N 1798, the organi- 
zation of the army 
of the United States 
was completed, and 
the next year Wil- 
kinson was created a 
major-general. The 
threatened rupture 
between France and 
this country had 
something to do 
with effecting his 
promotion. It is 
reported that Ham- 
ilton presented the 
request to Washington, the general-in-chief, at the same 
time acknowledging there was some doubt entertained of 
the candidate ; that his character was not above criticism 
on more than one count, but that he was a man of more 
than ordinary talent. He was a soldier of experience 




84 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

who would naturally find it to his interest to deserve 
favors of the government " while he would be apt 
to become disgusted if neglected, and through disgust 
may be rendered really what he is now only suspected 
to be.^ 

Washington took the same view of the case, and the 
suspect got his appointment to high command. It was in 
fact a bribe for his future loyalty or a reward for his past 
treason, as one may look at it. A few short years before 
he had written to a Spanish governor : " In order to aid 
the favorable disposition of Providence, to foment the 
suspicions and feelings of distrust already existing here 
[Kentucky], and influence the animosity between the 
Eastern and Western States, Spain must resort to every 
artifice and other means which may be in her power. . . . 
I consider it as profoundly judicious ; and I am of opinion 
that it ought to be renewed and vigorously carried on 
until its object be attained, cost what it may." 

But his ideas had changed with the change in his for- 
tunes and with the turn of the great political wheel in 
which he was a spoke. With the beginning of a new cen- 
tury Spain'^s grasp on Louisiana and Florida was nerveless, 
and it was known that the former was to be re-ceded to 
France. Plotting with her governors was now useless. 
It was no longer possible for an independent nation to be 
formed through any such conspiracy ; and yet he believed 
that the trend of events was favorable to a great and 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 85 

independent power in the Southwest. His vision of empire 
had in reality expanded. 

Digression has been made to relate the facts of other 
seditious enterprises that were attempted during the years 
that Wilkinson pursued his secret negotiations with the 
Spaniards, and although others still were set on foot 
before the finish of his career in this region, it will appear 
a more continuous narrative to round out the recital of 
his infamy and have done with it. 

The agitation and discontent throughout the South- 
western Territories and States of the Union late in the 
eighteenth century created in many ambitious men a 
passion for conquest — for the forcible appropriation of 
territory that did not belong to them, — which did not 
subside when the causes of disloyal mutterings had been 
removed. A large proportion of the population was of 
the restless, migratory spirit. If no real cause for 
dissatisfaction with their present situation existed, they 
imagined one. They did not like to feel the authority 
of any kind of government. The excise, or internal reve- 
nue tax on whiskey, was particularly obnoxious to them. 
Government was all right in some sort of self-sustaining 
way to fight off other nations and chastise the Indians, 
but beyond those functions it was not only superfluous, 
it was an exasperating nuisance. 

So there was a longing for other lands. They wanted 
to try another experiment at nation-making. They 



86 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

looked beyond the great river to Louisiana, beyond 
Louisiana to Texas, beyond Texas to Mexico. The 
turmoil in Mexico gave them the feeling that Spanish 
control of that country would not last long, and that 
it would not require the aid of a very strong military 
force to make the Mexicans independent, nor a much 
stronger force to subjugate that country afterwards. 
The Spaniards they hated ; for the Mexicans they had 
contempt. 

Prior to the purchase of Louisiana, going back sev- 
eral years, the newspapers throughout the United States 
frequently published articles discussing the possible con- 
quest of Mexico. Those published west of the moun- 
tain ranges treated the subject the most seriously. 
During the exasperation arising from the Florida bound- 
ary survey, a movement against Mexico was openly 
advocated, just as, some years later, when there was 
contention over the Louisiana- Texas boundary, the 
excitement led to marauding expeditions. 

In 1799, Louis de Penalvert y Cardenas, Bishop of 
Louisiana, in a report said : " The emigration from the 
Western part of the United States and the toleration 
of our Government have introduced into this colony 
a gang of adventurers who have no religion and ac- 
knowledge no God ; and they have made much worse 
the morals of our people. . . . They employ Indians 
on their farms, and have frequent intercourse and 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 87 

conversation with them, and impress their minds with 
pernicious maxims in harmony with their own restless 
and ambitious tempers ; this with the customs of their 
own Western countrymen, who are in the habit of saying 
to such of their boys as are distinguished for a robust 
frame, whilst patting them on the shoulder, *you 
will be the man to go to Mexico.' " 

The force of this indictment depends, of course, upon 
what the Bishop would construe as acknowledging God ; 
and he may have had the narrowest orthodox notions 
of his church as to that. Nevertheless, there is abun- 
dance of evidence from sources that cannot be sus- 
pected of any prejudice, that his characterization was 
in the main true to the life. Making all reasonable 
allowance for the morals and manners of a border 
people, owing to their isolation, their privations, and 
the harsh influences surrounding them, it must be 
recognized that a large proportion of the pioneers — 
the real movers and way-blazers — of the early South- 
west was of a pretty low and desperate kind of human- 
ity. The unquestioned tales of their slovenliness, their 
indifference to degraded environment, their low plane 
of morals, their cruelty, and their besotted bigotry 
stamp them as undoubtedly the least creditable of any 
frontier people in any period of our country's develop- 
ment. Testimony to this is given, for instance, by the 
itinerant revivalist preacher, Lorenzo Dow, who " toured '"* 



88 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

as far as the Mississippi in 1803, and into Louisiana 
the following two or three years. He had encountered 
some pretty low strata of society in various places, 
both here and abroad, for those were the layers he 
sought to leaven with the bacteria of righteousness ; 
but when he got down among the Mississippi settle- 
ments, Lorenzo cried to the good Lord for extra sup- 
port. He declared there were not three Christians in 
Natchez, meaning the whole district. Up to 1803 
no Protestant preacher had been heard in that region. 
Governor Claiborne, the first American Governor of 
Louisiana, complained, in 1805, of the tough character 
of the immigration into that State from east of the 
Mississippi, — degenerate characters who thrived on law- 
lessness, or at least were always ready to encourage it. 
Even the most intelligent of them caused him a great 
deal of trouble. They played a disgraceful part by 
encouraging distrust of and prejudice against the 
American authority. The "ancient inhabitants" of 
Louisiana, as the old-time Spanish subjects were called 
— mostly French and Spaniards — had long heard 
preached the doctrine that a republican form of gov- 
ernment could not long exist over an extensive terri- 
tory, and that the United States must limit their 
possessions to the Mississippi. They were a much more 
amiable and peace-loving people than the turbulent 
Americans, but the newly imposed American laws and 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 89 

American officialism were to them complicated and 
irksome, and they hoped for an early reversion to the 
old rule. And there were American citizens so con- 
temptible as to encourage them in order to gain their 
own petty political or financial advantage. 

Wilkinson knew all the conditions, political and other- 
wise, throughout the region ; he was well acquainted with 
the quality and temperament of the people. As the 
head of the army of the Southern District he could have 
done much toward conciliating them, encouraging patience 
with and respect for the government, and discouraging 
indifference to the laws. But his influence was never in 
the right direction ; his aims were in conflict with the 
authority he exercised, and his contemplated methods of 
realizing them depended upon lawless daring. Besides, 
his example of habits was in keeping with his greater 
offences. In addition to his constant gambling, he drank 
to excess. 

Lausat, the agent sent by France to attend to the 
formal delivery of Louisiana to the United States after 
the purchase, was a man of shrewd observation. The new 
responsibility the Americans had undertaken, and the 
instruments they were employing to handle them with, 
interested him. In a despatch to one of the French 
ministers he expressed his opinions of Claiborne and Wil- 
kinson : " The second has been long known here in the 
most unfavorable manner. He is a rattle-headed fellow, 



90 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

full of odd fantasies. He is frequently drunk, and has 
committed a hundred inconsistent and impertinent acts." 
And Lausat knew nothing of his crimes. 

From now on, to the time of his removal from this 
theatre of his "impertinent acts," Wilkinson^s plottings 
must be considered in connection with those of Aaron 
Burr. It is not proposed herein to give many details of 
the oft-recited story of Burr"'s designs on the Southwest, 
and the almost farcical movement he inaugurated to carry 
them out. The case has been one of such historical prom- 
inence and such constant allusion that it has completely 
overshadowed all other undertakings of similar aim, and 
crowded them into remote corners of unfamiliar history. 
Yet the Burr enterprise cannot be ignored. 

It is pretty reliable history that, before Burr retired 
from the office of Vice-President, he had a confidential con- 
ference with Mr. Merry, the British minister then at our 
capital, in which he offered his services to Great Britain 
" in any manner in which they may see fit to employ him," 
as Mr. Merry wrote his Minister of State. Although 
England did not then consider us quite a full-fledged 
nation, she did not appear to hold it compatible with her 
dignity to allow her representative to plot with Mr. Burr ; 
and so the latter got no employment of her " in any 
manner." 

But while the subject was still remembered. Burr's ac- 
complice, Williamson, in London got an audience with 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 91 

Pitt and Melville, and represented to them how they could 
deal the young republic a staggering blow by financing 
Buit's proposed expedition, which, among other grand 
things, was intended to detach the Southwestern States 
from the Union. Burr modestly requested of them the 
loan of only half a million dollars, three ships of the line, 
and a few frigates ; the money to be paid over in trust to 
John Barclay of Philadelphia and Daniel Clark of New 
Orleans. 

Now, that immediately connects Burr's plans with Wil- 
kinson, for Daniel Clark had been Wilkinson's agent and 
spy at New Orleans from the days of his first negotiations 
with Miro. Daniel Clark, in 1799, had inherited a large 
fortune from an uncle who had been a successful merchant 
and land dealer at the Southern metropolis. And, we may 
note, he is that Daniel Clark who was the father of Myra 
Clark Gaines, whose historic lawsuit for the possession of 
the vast estate he left forms perhaps the most romance-like 
chapter of American litigation. 

The British statesmen declined to "grubstake" Burr, 
so to speak, and the latter, disappointed and always in 
need of money, concocted a most disgraceful scheme of 
having his own secret communications with the English- 
men "tipped off" to the Spanish minister, with an offer 
to sell him full information of the alleged " plottings of 
Great Britain with a high official of the United States 
government against the Spanish possessions." Into this 



92 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

despicable game of squeeze he inveigled ex-United States 
Senator Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, a man of an- 
cestry and high respectability, who approached Minister 
Yruzo with the proposition, and actually got a few thou- 
sand dollars from him on the most pitiful confidence game 
that men of prominence ever stooped to. 

It would seem that very soon after these first (and 
futile) efforts, Burr took Wilkinson into his schemes. 
Or it may be that Wilkinson took Burr in. At any rate, 
they coupled their intriguing issues. One thing is certain 
— Wilkinson had for a long time had a definite plan ; 
Burr for a long time had not. As a real fact, it is al- 
together doubtful, and the ablest commentators on his case 
so express themselves, whether Burr ever had a well-defined, 
positive plan. He talked all kinds of things at different 
times and places ; to each one he hoped to win, in a strain 
he thought most likely to catch the fancy of the listener. 
He was disgruntled and out of harmony with society, 
an adventurer determined to make some kind of brilliant 
stroke. 

In the collusion of the two arch-plotters Wilkinson was 
to be second to Burr in the empire they were to establish. 
But first. Burr was going to colonize the grant of land 
which Baron Bastrop claimed to have received from Spain, 
situated in Louisiana. That was to be the nucleus. In 
the meantime the general was to dispose the military 
forces under his command so that they could be counted 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 93 

on as a powerful aid, or else be incapable of being used 
against them. But it was not a partnership to hold well. 
It was not in Wilkinson to play second villain to any- 
body, — he was too accomplished a performer in that role 
himself. And besides, it was the man's chief trait to play 
false to everybody. The Southwest, broad as it was, was 
yet too narrow a field for two such past-masters in con- 
spiracy. Jealousy seized on Wilkinson, and soon the 
entente began to cool. 

Says one author (PoweU) : " During this episode the 
one most infinitesimally contemptible character did not 
prove to be Burr, but Wilkinson. The senior major- 
general of the United States, he had been a pensioner 
of Spain for twenty years, acting as spy and traitor. 
That he should also have been an accomplice of Burr's 
was a bagatelle. It is not at all unlikely that he had 
acted for Spain all along, drawing Burr on to break up 
the Union ; but when Burr's schemes reached out to 
attack Mexico, his Spanish masters were convinced the 
States would be less dangerous to them than Burr would 
be. Then their contemptible tool denounced his ally to 
our government, making good his own safety by playing 
the natural part of informer and witness. . . . The scoun- 
drel posed as the saviour of the Union, held on to his 
$2000 a year from the Spanish King, secured immunity 
from his own double treason, and stood on the witness 
block to try to get Burr hanged." 



94 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

But Wilkinson's defection did not deter Burr, who by 
that time had coddled up to Blennerhasset and was 
building flatboats on the Ohio. How they created a 
flotilla, collected arms, provisions, farm implements, and 
enrolled a company of men and boys; how they started, 
were stopped on the way when Blennerhasset got fright- 
ened and backed out ; how Burr continued on till he was 
arrested down on the Mississippi, — all are familiar facts. 

The mystery surrounding Burr's movements, and the 
dislike that he had incurred, gave the expedition an 
importance that it did not deserve. In the same way 
they greatly exaggerated the danger from Burr's treason. 
John Adams always belittled it ; and it is true beyond 
question that the menace to the Union was many times 
greater at the time of the Genet excitement, or even 
from the plottings of Wilkinson while the Western people 
were aflame with anger because the navigation of the 
Mississippi was denied them, than it was from this puny 
movement. 

Calmly considered, it is laughable, the panic which 
Burr's approach caused in Mississippi. Cowles Mead, the 
acting Governor, a talkative and excitable man, was so 
alarmed that he ordered the entire State militia, five 
regiments, under arms. He was even more frightened 
than Wilkinson professed to be over in Louisiana. He 
sent despatches proclaiming " the fate of the country may 
depend on my movements now." 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 95 

With the same show of alarm, Wilkinson, who was 
in Western Louisiana where the Mexicans under Herrera 
were threatening trouble over the Texas boundary dis- 
pute, talked of Suit's mightiness. It had looked very 
much as if there would be a battle. Herrera was 
with his troops on the west bank of the Sabine, and 
Wilkinson on the east bank. While in this position 
Wilkinson received a letter from Burr stating that the 
latter had started his expedition, and suggesting that 
Wilkinson had better reconsider and join him. He 
said he intended seizing Baton Rouge as a prelimi- 
nary measure. Wilkinson took two weeks to consider 
the matter. Then he sent the letter to Washington 
and denounced Burr. Having taken ample time to 
think it over he now concluded that a great danger 
was impending. The first thing he did was to make 
overtures to Herrera, who was awaiting an attack, for 
an armistice. He suggested that, as the Mexicans 
claimed the Sabine as the boundary and the Americans 
the Nueces, the country between the two should 
be declared neutral ground, not to be occupied by 
either Mexicans or Americans, until the whole question 
should be settled by treaty. Herrera agreed, and both 
armies drew off. 

Now Wilkinson was free to protect his beloved 
country against the treasonable attack of his late 
friend Burr. He sent word to Commodore Shaw and 



96 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

had him concentrate eight war vessels, fifty guns, at 
New Orleans to meet Aaron"'s terrible *' flotilla." He 
began to mobilize his troops near that city, and pre- 
tended to discover a seething hotbed of treason there. 
He sent a request to Governor Claiborne to declare 
martial law, and advised the Governor to authorize 
him, Wilkinson, "to repress the seditious and arrest 
the disaffected; to call the resources of the city into 
active operation. The defects of my force may expose 
me to be overwhelmed by numbers . . . because you 
could not for a moment withstand the desperation and 
numbers opposed to you ; and the brigands, provoked 
by the opposition, might resort to the dreadful expe- 
dient of exciting a revolt of the negroes. If we divide 
our forces, we shall be beaten in detail ! " 

Later he wrote Claiborne that he had received intel- 
ligence which led him to believe that Burr would 
reach Natchez about Dec. 20 (1806) with two thou- 
sand men, and added that he feared he, Wilkinson, 
had been betrayed "by Burr and his rebellious bands." 
According to the doughty commander, it was a situ- 
ation that called for the military genius of a Caesar 
and the swift strokes of a Napoleon to save the nation. 

Governor Claiborne did not quite lose his head. He 
refused to proclaim martial law ; but the merchants of 
New Orleans were affected with the silly alarm and 
began subscriptions for supplying clothes and arms to 



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Governor William C. C. Claiborne 

Of Luiuamna 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 97 

the volunteers. These volunteers were first enlisted 
for the emergency, but Wilkinson entered objection 
to this, and demanded that they be enlisted for six 
months. He also made a vigorous demand for an 
embargo for six months on river traffic, up the river 
or to the gulf But the men would not enlist for six 
months, and the business men and the Governor objected 
to the embargo. The general then wanted Claiborne 
to order an impressment, and conducted himself like a 
scared fool or a knave, inditing florid and bombastic 
letters about having put his life and character in oppo- 
sition to the flagitious enterprises of Burr. 

What he wanted six months' enlistments for, or a 
tight embargo on river commerce, it is impossible to 
explain on any other theory than that he had designs 
of putting his own ulterior schemes into operation, and 
perhaps crush Burr at the same stroke. That would 
appear like a mad attempt, but his whole conduct was 
equally as crazy. 

To add to the gaiety of the farce. Mead, the before- 
mentioned Mississippian who was trying to give an 
imitation of a governor, and doing it most ridicu- 
lously, sent out a screech like a startled jackdaw for 
help in his hour of terror. " We want arms and ammu- 
nition ! We have men, but they are badly provided. 
I can only stand and make the fight of Leonidas ! 
Burr may come, and he is no doubt desperate, but 

7 



98 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

treason is seldom associated with generous courage or 
real bravery. ... If I stop Burr, this may hold the gen- 
eral (Wilkinson) in allegiance to the United States. 
But if BuiT passes this territory with two thousand 
men, I have no doubt that the general will be your 
worst enemy. Be on your guard against the wily 
general ! He is not much better than Catiline. Con- 
sider him a traitor, and act as if certain thereof! 
You may save yourself by it ! " 

Grotesque as this appeal is, it gives a clear understand- 
ing of what estimate Wilkinson was held in by the official, 
— an estimate that doubtless was shared by many other 
men in the Mississippi region. 

Wilkinson, being unable to force Claiborne, began to 
act independently of him. The next thing he did was 
the climax of his absurdity. There was a British squadron 
of a few vessels resting idly under the pleasant winter sun 
at Jamaica. Admiral Drake was in command. To him 
Wilkinson despatched a military messenger, Lieutenant 
Swan, with a screed informing the admiral of Burr*'s 
mighty plans, and of the (alleged) circulation of a report 
that the cooperation of a British naval armament had 
been either promised or applied for, and warning him and 
all officers in the British navy that their interference, or 
any cooperation on their part, would be considered as 
highly injurious to the United States, and as affecting the 
present amicable relations between the two nations. He 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 99 

hoped the British Governor at Jamaica would not only 
refi-ain from such cooperation, but would prevent any 
and all individuals from affording aid to the conspirators, 
— and so on. 

The admiral paused from a rum julep to read, and then 
took another, and read again. Still it did not appear at 
all clear to him. 

"What in Neptune is it all about?"" he wanted to 
know. He called the captains and lieutenants, and the 
private secretary took a brace in his mental jib and tried 
to interpret the riddle. Then the admiral replied that 
from the style and manner in which the communication 
had been made he hardly knew how to answer it. But he 
assured General Wilkinson that British ships of war would 
not be employed in any improper service. 

Up to this point Wilkinson's furioso buffoonery did 
not hurt much, but now he took to arbitrarily arresting 
citizens whom he pretended to suspect of complicity 
in Burr's plans, and to resisting habeas corpus writs. 
He established practically a dictatorship. One superior 
judge resigned. Claiborne, while not approving Wil- 
kinson's usurpation of power, admitted that there were a 
good many of the inhabitants, both among the " ancient " 
Louisianians and the recent American comers, who he 
believed would cordially have supported Burr, — just as 
Wilkinson was convinced, no doubt, that they would sup- 
port him as soon as he was able to effect a coup. 

Lore; 



100 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Among those whom Wilkinson arrested was the Ameri- 
can veteran General Adair, and also Doctor Eric Bollman, 
who had achieved almost worldwide notoriety through his 
daring attempt to liberate Lafayette from the Austrian 
prison of Olmiitz. 

Yet on came Burr with the heralded mighty sweep of 
his flotilla legion, and mightier was the commotion of mil- 
itary preparation to save the nation, — five regiments in 
Mississippi, eight ships of war in front of New Orleans, a 
thousand volunteer troops under arms, and several hun- 
dred regulars which Wilkinson had hurried forward from 
different posts. And now one morning the militia officers 
on the lookout at Natchez saw something suspicious- 
looking lying along the shore, and, taking a squad of 
troopers, they went over and put it under arrest. It was 
Burr's flotilla of destruction — nine small flatboats and 
less than a hundred men ; some reports say only sixty. 
And that was all there was of it. The terrorists were 
mostly young fellows, mere boys, — armed, it is true, but 
nobody went anywhere without arms in that region and 
those days. Many of the crew did not even know where 
they were bound or what their object was. 

When Burr was placed under arrest for his armed inva- 
sion, he asked if his outfit looked warlike or fit for con- 
quest ; and no one could say that it did. But of course 
they made no allowance for that. And " General "" Mead 
never got through telling of his valiant capture of Burr. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 101 

He suffered from chronic vanity, and as he grew old it is 
said he really persuaded himself that he " saved the 
nation."" Wilkinson, after all his terrible bluster, had 
no hand in it, and the whole proceeding left him a good 
deal in the light of a picturesque buffoon. He had some 
trouble squaring himself for his outrageous exercise of 
authority, and the trial of Burr, against whom he was 
one of the principal witnesses, did not tend to allay the 
ill report of him that had been spreading throughout the 
country. 

That he had connived with Burr up to almost the last 
hour is fully proved. He wrote to Daniel Clark, his 
former agent, who had now become a territorial member 
of Congress, that " that great and honest man [Burr] will 
communicate to you many things improper to letter, which 
he would not say to another." It was illustrated in the 
trial of Burr, the details of which are common history, as 
well as in the trial of Wilkinson which followed two years 
later, that the charges may be proved against the accused 
without securing a conviction. Burr was guilty. He had 
openly talked treason for years. It does not matter that he 
set about it with pitifully inadequate facilities for putting 
his mixed and ill-defined designs into execution, nor that 
he did not for a moment put the government in jeopardy. 
At an earlier date, when the people of the region were in 
a seditious mood, he no doubt would have been received 
by thousands with acclaim, and he might at that period 



102 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

have made a change in the map. That he was acquitted 
was just as well. To have hanged him would have been 
to punish one man for treason when it was well known 
that a thousand had been guilty of the same crime with- 
out any attempt at punishing them. And besides, the 
treasonable sentiment was becoming outgrown. 

It is hard to express as charitable a thought for Wil- 
kinson, who did his best to secure the hanging of his 
friend and accomplice. But that was only meanness. A 
swift review of the crimes and transgressions of the man, 
the revelry of treason that he kept up for years, and the 
despicable trickery which he practised, damns him as 
utterly vile. 

He was not an unworthy accomplice of Aaron Burr. 
They had many qualities in common. Both were of 
agreeable presence, of good voice, and easy command of 
words. Both could talk convincingly, and one was about 
as adept at mystifying or misleading as the other. But 
Wilkinson, much more than his more distinguished rival 
in guile, was given to protesting his own virtues, especially 
his patriotism and love of honor. 

"Yet he probably was as utterly destitute of all real 
honor," says T. M. Green, " as venal, as dishonest, as faith- 
less as any man that ever lived. His selfishness was 
supreme and his self-indulgence boundless, while his knowl- 
edge of all that is mean and corrupt in mankind seemed 
intuitive. With an ambition that was at once vaulting 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 103 

and ever restless, and a vanity that was immeasurable, to 
gratify the one and to offer incense to the other he did 
not scruple to pander to the vices of his fellows, to excite 
their cupidity, and to tempt them to treason."*' 

A pretty brutal indictment, it may be said ; but it is by 
a writer who studied deeply and critically the circum- 
stances of his career, as well as the inner history of the 
intrigues and treasonable movements of the Southwest 
during the early period. 

When Wilkinson came to Kentucky there was, among 
other agitations, that to separate the district from Vir- 
ginia. He wrote a disrespectful address, of the spirit to 
make trouble, and it was sent to the Virginia assembly. 
When the assembly very properly voted to make the sep- 
aration depend on the assent of Congress and the admis- 
sion of Kentucky into the Union, he vehemently urged an 
immediate assumption of independence, contrary to law 
and dignity, and openly expressed his contempt for the 
assembly and Congress. 

He engaged in a traitorous negotiation with the British, 
contemplating an attack on Louisiana ; then he went to 
the Spanish Governor of that province and used his" com- 
munication with the British as an aid in inducing the Gov- 
ernor to join him in a conspiracy for a dismemberment of 
the Union. He accepted a commission and high promo- 
tion in the army of his country while receiving pay from 
a foreign power for plotting to disrupt the Union. He 



104 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

most betrayed the men who most befriended him. Nor 
was he true even to his Spanish partners in infamy. 
While d]-awing a pension from the Spanish King he 
entered into the conspiracy with Burr to seize his Majesty ""s 
American provinces. Not only that, but while the expe- 
dition was organizing he despatched a special agent, and 
an officer in the American army at that, Captain Burling, 
to Mexico to solicit of the viceroy "reimbursement" of 
the " great pecuniary " losses he had incurred in prevent- 
ing an invasion of that country " by the Vice-President 
of the United States'" (Burr). He wrote the viceroy 
a bombastic description of the desolating legions that 
menaced his land, and would have conquered it, but for 
his own saving valor. " I, like Leonidas, boldly threw 
myself in the pass," he declared. 

Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, the celebrated American 
explorer, was in Mexico at the time Burling made his 
journey, and noted that he was on a strange mission, 
which he declined to explain to Pike. But the Mexican 
viceroy refused to pay tribute at that time, and Burling 
was ordered out of the country. That trip could not be 
kept a secret, and therefore it required an explanation. 
The explanation Wilkinson gives in his memoirs, is that 
he sent the officer " on grounds of public duty and 
professional enterprise to attempt to penetrate the veil 
which concealed the topographical route to the City 
of Mexico, and the military defences which intervened, 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 105 

feeling that the equivocal relations of the two countries 
justified the ruse/"' 

It should be noted that the two countries were entirely 
at peace, and Wilkinson had no orders that warranted him 
in attempting to " penetrate the veil which concealed the 
topographical route " to Mexico. Yet there is reason 
to believe that subsequently he did succeed in obtaining 
money from the Spanish government on some such repre- 
sentation as that he made to the Mexican viceroy ; for 
he ended his days in Mexico on an estate which it is 
historically alleged he bought with the profits of his 
treason. 

And so, for twenty years he wallowed in corruption. 
John Randolph said after the Burr trial, — " Wilkinson 
was the only man I ever saw who was from the back 
to the very core a villain. Perhaps you never saw human 
nature in so degraded a situation as in the presence of 
Wilkinson before the grand jury." 

But at last his offences became so rank that he was 
ordered to trial. The principal charges in the indictment 
were, receiving bribes from Spain, and complicity in Span- 
ish plottings against the Union. 

The most effective witnesses against him were Daniel 
Clark, his former correspondent, now one of the leading 
men of New Orleans ; and Thomas Power, who had been 
sent on special missions to him by Governor Carondelet. 
The trial was by court-martial, and it is declared that 



106 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the court was organized to acquit him. That is not 
probable. Yet it appeared on the face of the evidence 
that conviction must follow. Clark had previously made 
a sworn statement to Congress that the privileges and 
emoluments granted to Wilkinson by the former Spanish 
Governors were in consideration of his undertaking to 
separate Kentucky from the Union and bring her under 
the sovereignty and protection of Spain. That Wilkinson 
became a pensioner of Spain, and continued to receive 
a pension from her long after he had reentered the 
United States army, specifying as to times and places 
he had received various sums, and giving amounts. He 
listed sums paid Wilkinson of which he (Clark) had 
personal knowledge, aggregating about $30,000. 

Clark gave this testimony before the court, and Power 
swore to payments made to Wilkinson. But this was 
in 1808, years after the transactions, and neither witness 
could substantiate his assertions by documentary proofs. 
It will be remembered that Clark had written a memorial 
to the Secretary of State back in 1787, at Wilkinson's 
request, but not ostensibly so. The defence — and Wil- 
kinson conducted his own defence — now produced that 
paper, and impeached Clark's testimony by showing that 
either he must have falsified in that statement or else 
he was not telling the truth now. And it is seldom men 
are hanged by such witnesses. 

Wilkinson impeached Power's testimony in a similar 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 107 

way — by showing a discrepancy between his present and 
a previous statement he had cajoled from the man, in 
anticipation of just this emergency. He claimed in his 
own defence that he quit trading to New Orleans before 
he reentered the army, and that the sums he received 
were due him on old accounts. This was a bold but 
flimsy assertion, and might have been disproved by 
Wilkinson''s former partners, and his last book-keeper, 
Philip Nolan ; but it was not done. It must be remem- 
bered that the incriminating documentary evidence, the 
letters Miro sent to Spain, and the copy of the agreement 
between them, were not then available — their existence 
was not known. They were discovered years later. 

Yet Wilkinson was acquitted, as Burr was acquitted, 
mainly because there had been treason among the people, 
and because it is difficult to convict an individual of a 
crime that has had a popular sympathy and support. 
After his acquittal he was given a command, in 1813, 
of the army operating against Canada, away from the 
scenes of his disgraceful traffic. He blundered badly, 
and was court-martialed again, this time for cowardice ; 
but again he was acquitted, although stigmatized by 
General Scott as " that unprincipled imbecile." 

For resourceful intrigue, cunning in forestalling detec- 
tion, and villainy of scope and imagination, he was a 
character to whom his Moorship''s ancient, lago, would 
hardly have been a capable understudy. He played fast 



108 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

and loose with friend and foe alike, false to every interest 
but his own selfish purposes. 

There was a romance growing out of Burr's disastrous ex- 
ploit which does not appear to have been repeated as often 
as most others of his life. Wherever Aaron Burr tarried 
long there always was a romance. Some writers who have 
inclined to view his career with the eye of extenuation, if 
not of apology, have treated " the Madeline story "" as that 
of at least one event in which the arch-adventurer's heart 
was touched to sincerity. How much of tradition there 
is in it, and how much of the other kind of history, may be 
left as uncertain — it merely adds interest to the tale. 

The story is given in a serious history of Mississippi, 
and the authority for it credited to Governor Claiborne ; 
and the Governor is not reputed to have been given to 
fiction-weaving, at least, in a professional sense. 

If Claiborne may be trusted, Madeline was one of the 
most beautiful beings that ever entranced the visions of 
men. What her other name was the Governor seemingly 
did not think it necessary to state. In this omission may 
be discerned a sly intention on his part to tease our curi- 
osity ; or the good man may have assumed that it would 
live in romance, and everybody be familiar with it. 

But, that aside, Madeline was bewitchingly beautiful, 
and, alas ! poor. In this we have a love-tale as a states- 
man recites it, and without technical attention to personal 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 109 

descriptions. Madeline was distractingly beautiful. She 
lived with her mother in a vine-decked cottage situated 
midway between the mansions of Colonel Osman and 
Major Isaac Guion. It might have been looked for, con- 
sidering the Governor's training in the employment of 
legal terms, that he would have described the location as 
lying and being situate, but he did not. It no doubt ran 
that way in the mortgage on Madeline's mother's little 
plantation — but let that be forgotten. 

Between the mansions, and leading by the cottage for 
much of the way, was a trellised walk shaded from the 
fierce sunheat by fi'agrant evergreens. Now Aaron Burr 
was a guest at Colonel Osman's. After he had been 
placed under arrest for frightening the souls of General 
Wilkinson and Acting Governor Mead into a quiver, and 
incidentally plotting to break up the Union, the colonel, 
with a chivalrous feeling toward a gentleman in trouble, 
signed Burr's bond for his appearance, and then made him 
comfortable in his house to await the outcome. Many 
people of quality thereabouts did not believe the accused 
guilty, and if he was, it was a sort of offence they felt a 
good deal of sympathy with, anyhow. 

In this quiet retreat, as beautiful as it was peaceful, the 
spirit of Aaron Burr communed with nature as he paced 
the trellised walk, or meditated upon the vicissitudes of 
politics and conspiracies — which were all the same to 
him. Dapper and elegant beyond the men he had landed 



no THE GLORY SEEKERS 

among, handsome and winning, with something of the 
ideal prince about him, his was a personahty ahuost irre- 
sistible both to men and women. 

Within a very short time this restless spirit yearned, 
and as he yearned he passed the little cottage and beheld 
Madeline, a perfect woodland nymph, too shy to be caught 
casting a look toward him. She was conning her lonely 
lesson amid the roses that grew beside the cottage door. 
Her mother was visiting the narrow field which was tilled 
by her two or three faithful slaves who had come with 
them from Virginia, who had cleared the land, and pro- 
tected the widow and her daughter from the dangers of 
the wild. 

And now here was Madeline dangerously alone, for 
the tempter whose sparkling eyes gazed upon her was 
known of all persons as the one most to be dreaded 
among a nation. Yet so strong was the power of 
innocence and purity that they were Madeline's shield 
— and Aaron Burr walked on. 

So favorite now had become the walk between the 
two mansions that the interesting visitor was noted as 
giving more time to strolling it than to communion 
with his friends at either house. And what should 
happen ? Could a sweet maiden of sixteen keep always 
among the roses at her door ? Perhaps the day she 
ventured along the trellised ramble she supposed 
the handsome stranger would not appear again, he 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 111 

having gone by some time before. Be that as it may, 
none could blame her that he returned and met her 
with the courtliest of bows. She could not run away 
like a frightened hare. Being well-bred she was not 
frightened. And if she felt the trepidation natural to 
girlhood, his agreeable manner soon reassured her. 

Would she do him the great kindness to tell him 
who lived in the lovely cottage to the right? — the 
sight of it had been a source of such exquisite pleas- 
ure to him in his lonely walks. Ah, to be sure, a 
delightful confirmation — he was quite certain that he 
had caught glimpses of her as he passed — stolen 
glimpses, the boldness of which she surely would for- 
give when she understood what a solace it h^d been 
to him in his enforced seclusion. 

As he spoke he did not seem impertinent. She for- 
got that he was notorious, if indeed she had previ- 
ously realized it. She did not remember that he was 
old, as compared with her own tender years. He 
was affable, simple, sympathetic. He hoped it would 
be his privilege before he departed to make the acquaint- 
ance of the fortunate father of — 

No father ? It was a sad misfortune ! 

" My father,"" said Madeline, " was so strong and 
loving that I love to talk of him ; but his death was 
such a dreadful tragedy that I ""m afraid when I remem- 
ber it. He was killed by the savage Indians who 



112 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

attacked our camp one night when we were moving 
out here from Virginia. He was the first to defend us. 
I was only ten, and was so frightened I could n't even 
cry out. Oh, sir, that terrible night ! " 

It might not have been because of a tear that the 
listener touched his lace handkerchief to his eye, but 
nevertheless there was a slight tremble to his voice 
when he spoke. The next day he stopped at the 
cottage. And now it mattered not whether Madeline 
met him down the walk under the fir trees that whis- 
pered a monotone of sadness in the southern breeze. 
But she frequently did — and the days went the faster 
for it to both. 

Then came a twilight when he spoke sorrowfully. In 
the clasp of his hand was the thrill of what was now 
to her the universe. 

" Madeline, let us not part ! To-morrow I must go. 
I am persecuted, but I shall triumph. Come with me, 
Madeline, my love, my soul ! " 

She could not answer. They walked on the knoll 
called the Half-way Hill. Here Madeline heard the 
witchery of his words as she had never heard it before. 
He told her that he had despaired of obtaining justice. 
He had great and powerful enemies who were bent on 
working his destruction, and he had determined to 
secretly leave the country. He had been famous — 
he would again be rich and great. She should have 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 113 

wealth and high position in the social world, a position 
for which her grace and beauty destined her. To her 
he would be true as the fixed stars above them. It had 
been his dream to wear imperial honors. His plans 
were not yet dead. There were powerful aids beyond 
the seas that he could count on. He needed only her 
to spur him onward. 

But Madeline, in tears and pain, would not consent. 
They were not married, and her faith would not per- 
mit her to think of fleeing with him without first 
becoming his wife. And there was her mother whom 
she could not leave broken-hearted and alone — no, it 
was impossible ! Love was mighty, but she could not 
commit so great a sin ! 

Late that night Aaron Burr silently left his friend's 
house, took from his stable a favorite horse, and sped 
away. But he could not leave without once more 
seeing Madeline and beseeching her to accompany him. 
He returned at daylight to her cottage, and at her 
open window renewed his entreaties. All the dazzling 
prizes that could tempt a maiden of beauty and 
ambition he promised her if she would go — they 
would be married at the first opportunity ; happiness 
and glory awaited ! 

Still the loving but sensible girl refused. She loved 
him ; she would wait till he had conquered fortune 
again and came for her. Let them give each other 



114 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

their promises. She would remain true to hers — for- 
ever if need be. And so they pHghted their hearts, 
and the disappointed wooer rode rapidly away, to be 
taken again very soon by rough soldiery, and dragged 
to Richmond to stand trial for his life. 

For several years Madeline waited, true to her prom- 
ise, and with a firm belief that he would come again. 
Often was she observed resorting alone to the shaded 
walks where she had listened to the fascinating music 
of his words. But Aaron Burr came not again. 

Years later, when he was a wanderer and an outcast 
in Europe, he wrote to her of the utter hopelessness of 
his circumstances, and released her from her troth. He 
stated that he did not intend ever to return to his 
native land again and, assuming with sublime egotism 
that she could never give her heart to another, advised 
her, should she survive her mother, to enter a con- 
vent. In just what spirit Madeline received this pious 
advice cannot be stated. But a year or two later she 
went with a neighboring family to Havana. 

It is here that one is tempted to doubt the historical 
accuracy of the Governor's story, for it does not seem 
that any human beauty could create such a furore of 
enthusiasm as he says Madeline's did among the people 
of the Cuban capital. It had almost a maddening 
effect upon the cavaliers ; the populace besieged the 
hotel where she was a guest ; she was entertained by the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 115 

Governor-General, and crowds gathered about her wher- 
ever she went. At night she could hardly rest because 
of the continuous throngs of serenaders that sang before 
her windows. Many balls were given in her honor, and 
the offers of marriage she received — well, there was 
no accurate list of them preserved. 

Of course, she was among a gallant and impressionable 
people ; but one may be allowed the inference, even 
though Governor Claiborne failed to hint at anything 
of the kind, that the tales of her romantic betrothal to 
the most notorious adventurer of the time had much 
to do with the sensation she aroused. 

Be it that or no, she returned to the cottage near 
the foot of the hill, and again was seen alone by the 
trellised walk. But not for long. An Englishman, a 
wise, calculating young man, who had looked with quiet 
adoration upon her at Havana while the cavaliers were 
losing their senses, followed her home. He won her 
hand, and presumably her heart. After a brief court- 
ship she married him, and their future years were spent 
in peace and happiness. Both are dead, said the good 
Governor with a parting touch of sentiment, but the 
old Half-way Hill still lifts its aged brow, wrinkled 
with tradition, to mark the scene of Madeline''s strange 
romance. 

The reader is inclined to wonder whether this is as 
fanciful as Wirfs too famous description of the deluded 



116 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Blennerhasset and his beautiful wife. They never were 
deserving of the sympathy that was aroused for them 
by Wirt's maudHn declamation. But Burr seems to have 
conjured up a romance and mist of unreality wherever he 
went. 



CHAPTER V 



Philip Nolan's Expedition of Conquest — Visions of Empire — Invades 
Texas — Sudden Disaster — Quaint Memoir of Ellis Bean. 



N October of 1800, 
Philip Nolan started 
on an expedition 
from Natchez, Miss., 
with a company of 
less than two dozen 
men, his design be- 
ing to effect the 
conquest and per- 
manent occupation 
of Texas. 

Reckless and dar- 
ing as this undertak- 
ing was, it is saved 
from the Quixotic 



category of ventures by a proper consideration of the con- 
ditions that confronted him. Aside from the savages 
within its undefined borders, Texas at that time had only 
a few hundred inhabitants, practically all of whom were 
Mexicans. There were two or three companies of Mexican 




118 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

troops scattered throughout the province to maintain order 
and prevent the intrusion of foreigners. Up to this time 
these troops had not been overburdened with the last- 
mentioned part of their duties ; few civiHzed people had 
quite so abandoned themselves to dismal solitudes as to 
want to enter Texas. 

The viceroy of Mexico was supposed by the Americans 
to have all he could well attend to in preventing insurrec- 
tion and rebellion without sending a large force to his 
distant and uninhabited frontiers. Louisiana had just 
been retroceded to France, thus making it unnecessary to 
traverse a Spanish territory in order to reach the Texan 
border. And it was believed by Nolan that France would 
wink at the little discourtesy toward Spain which he was 
preparing to commit. 

Besides all this, the venturesome Mississippian counted 
on picking up a good many volunteers on the march 
across Louisiana, while a number of his acquaintances were 
expected to follow and join him before he began the 
invasion. 

As before noted, invasion of the Mexican country had 
been a popular theme of discussion among the South- 
western settlements. Almost everybody believed that 
sooner or later it was bound to come. And so it was 
not necessary in organizing this expedition, as it is natural 
to suppose it would be when fitting out for a hostile 
attack against a nation with which our government was 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 119 

at peace, to conduct the business in secret. Almost 
every person in Natchez knew of Nolan's designs. He 
had been to Texas three years before, in 1797. His 
mission then was to procure horses for the army, and 
the trip was under the direction of General Wilkinson. 

There was a Spanish consul resident at Natchez. Infor- 
mation of Nolan''s enterprise reached his loyal ears. 
Seiior Vidal entered a protest against it by a written 
memorial to Governor Sargent. The Governor, of course, 
professed that he could not see anything in the movement 
worth growing excited about. But he called Federal 
Judge Bruin for a joint consideration of the matter. 
Before them appeared Nolan and exhibited a passport 
to enter Texas issued to him by Don Pedro de Neva, 
commandant-general of the northeastern internal prov- 
ince of Mexico. 

" But," insisted Consul Vidal, " may I be permitted to 
examine that passport ? I have had advices that lead me 
to believe none such has been issued. Ah, to be sure ! 
The date justifies me. You see, your Excellencies, that 
this passport was issued to Mr. Nolan back in 1797. His 
trip to the province three years ago was understood to be 
for a legitimate purpose. There was no military prepara- 
tion. The commandant-general was pleased to grant the 
passport as a courtesy to General Wilkinson. It was in- 
tended to be for that particular expedition only. I main- 
tain, your Excellencies, that it grants no privilege now." 



120 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

But neither the Governor nor the judge, both appointed 
by the President of the United States, and sworn to 
maintain the dignity and the laws of the nation in the 
Territory, could see it in that peculiar light, — that a 
passport issued for a certain visit was not a passport for 
a lifetime ; or that one issued to a horse-buyer was not 
good to a man intending to subvert the government. So 
they pronounced in Nolan*'s favor. 

There were other Spaniards at Natchez besides the 
consul. Some half-dozen of them enlisted with Nolan. 
They were former residents of Mexico, and were sojourn- 
ing abroad because of having been implicated in some of 
the political troubles at home, and were glad of an oppor- 
tunity to strike at the vice-regal power. They knew per- 
fectly well what the scheme was, and were only astounded 
that the American authorities, knowing also, should have, 
in a manner, set their approval on it. On his first trip 
Nolan had drawn a map of the country, and there can be 
little doubt, judging from various evidences, that he had 
contemplated this project since that time. 

Philip Nolan was a protege of Wilkinson, and for many 
years prior to this date had been in his employ. He was 
the book-keeper and shipping clerk for the general in the 
years of the latter's privileged trading to New Orleans. He 
closed up the last business of Wilkinson and Dunn when 
they ceased operations in 1791, at the time Wilkinson 
reentered the army. If he did not know all about the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 121 

traitor's compact with Miro and Carondelet, the Spanish 
Governors, it is entirely safe to say that he did a lot of 
pretty accurate surmising. 

The confidential relations subsisting between the two 
is attested by the letter which the general gave Nolan to 
Governor Gayoso de Lemos, under date of February 6, 
1797, when he went on the horse-buying business. It was 
as follows : 

This will be delivered to you by Nolan, who, you know, 
is a child of my own raising, true to his profession, and firm 
in his attachment to Spain. I consider him a powerful 
instrument in our hands, should occasion offer. I will answer 
for his conduct. I am deeply interested in whatever con- 
cerns him, and I confidently recommend him to your warmest 
protection. I am evidently your affectionate 

Wilkinson. 

This letter would indicate that the mission of the bearer 
was something of a more mysterious nature than the cap- 
ture of wild horses on the Texas plains, and it is also one 
more piece of evidence that the writer was in unlawful 
commerce with the Spaniards. It would seem that Nolan 
was also "a good Spaniard"" in those days — just as his 
chief was. 

It is altogether probable that even at the date of the 
letter Wilkinson was acting in bad faith with his co- 
conspirators, the Spaniards ; that he had in contemplation 
a movement against Texas and Mexico, and that he was 



122 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

employing Nolan to spy out the land. It is certain, at 
least, that Nolan imbibed his ideas of attacking the Spanish 
possessions from the arch-plotter, and that he was under- 
taking this expedition with his approbation. 

Consul Vidal, having the decision against him on the 
question of the passport, sent a message by express to the 
Spanish commandant, De Neva, at Washita, informing 
him of the projected invasion, and declaring that Nolafl 
was a dangerous character who had long been plotting 
with Wilkinson against the Spaniards. The consul acted 
with commendable promptness, for Nolan had proceeded 
only forty miles westward from the Mississippi when he 
was met by a Spanish patrol of fifty men. Then followed 
a parley. The captain of the patrol was no Caesar. He 
listened to Nolan's plausible story of his desire to cultivate 
amicable business relations with the posts and settlements 
in Texas, heard how the would-be trader had been there 
before, and a lot of other things indicating that he had 
been on intimate terms with the Spaniards. In addition, 
there were the Spaniards themselves in Nolan'^s train to 
assure the patrol captain that it was all right ; and being 
fairly argued out, the captain let them pass. 

But Nolan knew this was not the obstacle to be feared 
the most. There was another company of defenders at 
Washita, or Ouachita, the place to which, four years later, 
Aaron Burr pretended to be steering his horny-handed 
colonizers. Not desiring to risk another arguing match, or 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 123 

any other kind of engagement, Nolan left the trail and 
swung wide around Washita, across the prairie covered 
with high grass, and through the trackless forests. 

It does not appear that the little band received any 
addition to its numbers on its march across Louisiana. 
On the contrary, three of its members, Mordecai Richards, 
John Adams, and John King, strayed fi'om the main body 
either in quest of game or in scouting for the enemy, got 
completely lost, failed either to find their party again or 
to pick up its trail, and finally made their way back to 
Natchez. It is hinted in at least one of the accounts 
of the undertaking that there was method in their stray- 
ing — that they weakened before the dangers and toil they 
were encountering, and deserted. 

The remaining force of about twenty men passed around 
the head of Lake Bastineau, crossed Red River, and a few 
miles farther on came to an Indian village. It was of the 
Ceddo tribe. The savages evidently had not had much ex- 
perience with civilized men, for they treated Nolan and his 
followers in a very friendly manner, supplied them with 
fresh horses and provisions, and sent them on their way 
much recuperated. 

This puny band now entered the country they expected 
to subjugate. There was nothing to hinder them, nobody 
to dispute their passage of the Sabine or the Neches. 
There was nothing to worry them but insects and distance 
— seemingly interminable distance. After many tiresome 



124 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

days they arrived at the Brazos. They were now well 
into the coveted land. It was not so bad, either. Here 
was a river not so muddy as some they had struggled 
across, woods at least partly without swamps, and a variety 
of game all around. 

Nolan considered it a good place at which to halt, 
especially as they were approaching the Comanche coun- 
try, and the Comanches were reputed to have a peculiar 
liking for the white man''s scalp. So he and his men made 
camp, felled trees, and built a large corral of logs. This 
was intended for the wild horses they would capture, for 
they were aware that nothing so aids man in his enter- 
prises of exploration and conquest as the horse. Tens 
of thousands of mustangs roamed the plains as wild as 
the deer. Soon the invaders had some three hundred of 
them captive in the corral. What with lassoing and 
breaking these animals, hunting the deer and jerking 
meat, shooting wild-fowl, and supplying their mess with 
fresh fish from the river, there was nothing for anyone 
to complain of, unless it was the incessant labors of the 
two negro cooks. 

By and by, and not so long either, came along a visit- 
ing party of two hundred Comanche warriors. Not a very 
cheerful thing, to have such a lot of visitors come into 
the camp of twenty white men hundreds of miles from any 
possibility of help. But these Comanches were good fel- 
lows. They partook of the white men's cheei', stayed with 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 125 

them a few days, and then invited the whole outfit to 
visit their chief, Necoroco, whose royal headquarters were 
upon the south fork of Red River. 

To accept seemed like going into voluntary captivity, 
perhaps to slaughter. To refuse would doubtless offend 
the warriors, which would mean a hostile attack very soon, 
and annihilation. Nolan grasped the former horn of the 
seemingly ugly alternative, and it proved a wise action. 
Leaving only a few of their number to guard the corral 
and care for the horses, the party packed up and took to the 
trail with the savages, whither they could hardly surmise. 
But after several days'" journey they arrived at Necoroco's 
camp, and found that they had not been deceived. The 
chief received them hospitably, provided them with 
wigwams and food, and invited them to make them- 
selves entirely at home, — which the white men happily 
proceeded to do. 

This incident is evidence that the Comanche has not 
been at all times and under all circumstances the 
treacherous savage which his later conduct stamped him. 
What palaver Nolan gave these warriors, — whether he 
entered into any alliance with them against other 
tribes, — the annals of the expedition do not make 
clear. It is quite likely that he entered into some 
compact with Necoroco which that chief considered 
would be to his advantage ; yet it would be doing him 
an injustice to insist that such was the motive of his 



126 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

hospitality. His guests remained with his people a 
month on most amicable terms, joining with them in 
the chase, and participating in their games and festi- 
vals. It appears that other tribes visited Necoroco 
during this time ; that there was a general peace exist- 
ing between them, and it may have been that there 
was a sort of congress of nations. Anyway, the white 
men made many friends among the savages, and 
returned to their camp on the Brazos well pleased 
with their experience. 

But they were not allowed to return alone. For 
reasons of his own — ostensibly as a protection to his 
visitors — Necoroco sent an escort of able warriors with 
them. These redskins stayed awhile at the Brazos, 
exhibiting the most familiar friendship. Then they 
indulged a racial idiosyncrasy by departing suddenly in 
the night and taking with them all the tame horses, 
eleven in number, which the invaders had left. They 
also took some camp articles that were lying about 
handy. 

Of course that was a great loss to the white men. 
Although they had a corralful of mustangs, it was a 
slow and tedious task to break them into reliable ser- 
vice. After a conference it was decided, therefore, to 
make an efforl^o recover their tame beasts, even if they 
had to go clear to Red River and make an appeal 
to Necoroco. Nolan decided to head the rescuing 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 127 

party himself, and took with him only five others, 
fearing there might be an attack on his camp, which 
was now known as Tehuacana Hill. The party of six 
set out on foot, of necessity. It could not burden itself 
with a provision supply, and had to kill its game as it 
went. The rescuers were mad clear through at being 
so outrageously treated after such a friendly exchange 
of courtesies, and their confidence in their savage neigh- 
bors, which had been raised to a high register, took a 
sudden drop. 

After a forced march of a week they came up with 
their cattle, which were in charge of a single Indian. 
It was surmised that the others, on discovering the 
whites after them, and not wanting to be caught red- 
handed, had abandoned the herd to this individual. 
The fellow had but one eye, but he was not blind to 
his situation. He professed much astonishment, and de- 
clared it was an unfortunate mistake ; that being minus 
an eye he had been unable to distinguish, and had taken 
the white menls horses for their own. 

Nolan considered the rascal too good a joker to 
kill, so he had him tied securely, and took him back 
to camp with the recovered steeds. They returned to 
Tehuacana Hill after an absence of thirteen days, and 
their success occasioned much rejoicing. A large log 
house had now been built. Good health prevailed. 
Privations were not rigorous, and the question of 



128 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

future movements was discussed. But Philip Nolan''s 
sands were running fast. 

While the horse-thief chasers were still resting from 
their hard trip, there was an unlooked-for attack on their 
camp. This was made by a company of sixty-eight regu- 
lar and thirty-two volunteer Spanish troops under com- 
mand of Nimesio Salcedo, who had succeeded Pedro de 
Neva as commandant-general. It occurred on the night 
of March 22, 1801. The outpost was surprised, and the 
guard of seven, consisting of five of Nolan's Spanish 
followers and two Americans, were taken prisoners. The 
enemy attacked the main camp at daybreak. There were 
now left only twelve Americans and one negro. They 
fought from the square enclosure of logs, but in about 
ten minutes after the firing began Captain Nolan received 
a rifle ball in the head and was almost instantly killed. 

Thus perished the first and perhaps the most audacious 
of the American adventurers who made hostile expeditions 
against Texas. His invasion was thwarted almost before 
it was fairly begun ; in fact, he had not been able to begin 
it on the scale he hoped. 

Before Nolan ceased breathing the command was seized 
by Ellis Bean, the youngest of the company, as certainly 
he was the most reckless and resolute. He was only 
eighteen, according to his own reckoning, but he had the 
nerve and daring of a hardened buccaneer. The very 
first thing he proposed was to charge and attempt the 




Ellis Bean 
Of the Nolan Ei-iiedition 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 129 

capture of a small cannon which the Spaniards had 
brought along, and which now was belching grapeshot 
into the log enclosure at short range. His companions 
refused to accompany him. They did not long for the 
glory of martyrdom. But they held their fort all day, 
by steady firing keeping the enemy off till after dark, with 
only two men wounded. 

They then planned a retreat, filling their powder-horns 
and giving the rest of their powder to the negro to carry. 
While crossing a creek under fire of the pursuing Span- 
iards, the negro and one of the wounded men stopped 
and surrendered. That left nine in the retreating party. 
Coming to a deep ravine they took refuge till morning. 
Then a messenger came with a white flag to tell them 
they must leave the country. Not a stunning demand, 
to be sure, and to it they readily agreed, with the stipu- 
lation that they were not to give up their arms. 

So they went back and buried Nolan and started under 
a guard of Mexicans for Nacogdoches, the most easterly 
post and settlement in Texas. When they came to 
Trinity River they found it running over its banks. 
Bean and his companions made a cottonwood canoe in 
which they politely sent the guards across first, three 
or four at a time, one paddling the pirogue back. Then 
a bright idea occurred to Bean. He proposed to his 
fellows, who were all on the west bank together with 
the Spanish captain and most of their arms, to throw 

9 



130 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the Spaniards' guns into the river, take the ammunition, 
capture the guard, and go on their way. He relates very 
regretfully that while one or two approved, the others 
thought it would be useless so long as they were being 
taken home anyway — a fatal error, as they soon dis- 
covered ; and one which Bean bewailed as due to placing 
confidence in Spaniards, " a people," he adds, " in whom 
you should place no trust whatever." 

When they arrived at Nacogdoches they were to await 
orders from Chihuahua, upon receipt of which the inva- 
ders "were all placed in irons and started back toward 
Mexico, instead of being allowed to continue homeward. 
Now began a long career of misfortune and hardships 
which Bean was the only one to survive. Fifteen years 
later, after he had returned to the Mississippi country, he 
wrote a memoir of his wanderings, imprisonment, and 
sufferings which combines all the elements of romantic 
and fortuitous adventure — " of hairbreadth 'scapes i' the 
imminent deadly breach," of love and torture and final 
triumph. The story must be mainly true, for it is 
altogether improbable that a man of his attainments 
could have composed a fiction like it. 

This memoir has been referred to in some of the his- 
tories of the Southwest region as Bean's diary, but it is 
not likely that he kept a diary during the years it covers, 
or could have kept one. It is almost a certainty that he 
wrote from a retentive memory, and one may suspect that 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 131 

where his recollection was at fault as to details he gave 
his imagination free exercise. The story is given as an 
appendix to Yoakum's history of Texas, the only time 
it has been printed in full, and appears to have been 
accepted as a veracious chronicle. 

This Bean was an original package of audacity. He 
was reared among the hills near Knoxville, Tenn. At 
the age of seventeen he had a great longing to see other 
parts of the world. A raw but self-confident scion of 
backwoods hardihood, with little schooling, his desire was 
opposed by his father. Finally, Ellis was entrusted with 
a boatload of flour and whiskey which he was to take down 
to Natchez to market. He was accompanied by a friend 
of about his own age. At Muscle Shoals he broke his 
boat in pieces on a rock and lost all his cargo, but saved 
a small trunk of clothes. He had his reasons for not 
wanting to return home, so he kept on, any way he could, 
to Natchez, near which place he had an uncle living. 

When he arrived there Philip Nolan was organizing 
his expedition for the subjugation of Texas, and young 
Bean enlisted with him. His uncle objected, but one day 
when both uncle and aunt were away from home Ellis 
took one of their best horses and departed. He went for 
three months, merely borrowing the horse. He did not 
get back for twelve years, and then was minus the steed. 
But a burning desire to see the country could not be 
smothered by an observance of conventionalities. 



132 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Within a few months he was in prison at San Antonio, 
where the nine captives of Salcedo lay several months. 
Then they were moved along to San Luis Potosi, where 
they were confined sixteen months. It was supposed they 
were being taken to Mexico City, but at that pace they 
began to doubt of ever arriving there. Bean now began 
to show his resourcefulness. While in this prison they 
grew very ragged. He told the authorities he was a 
shoemaker, and asked the privilege of sitting at the prison 
door during the daytime and making footgear. The 
request was granted for him and a companion. Bean was 
no shoemaker, but the other fellow taught him, and they 
made a bit of money with which they bought clothes. 

After a while they were moved to Chihuahua. It was 
an agreeable prison custom in Mexico in those days to 
shift the inmates occasionally from one state prison to 
another, — an especially happy plan for young men in the 
toils yet anxious to "see the country"; even though the 
journeys were made on muleback in heavy irons. 

The officer who conducted them this time had feeling. 
He took their irons oif at Saltillo. Now this was grand 
— riding four hundred miles through interesting scenery, 
hand- and-foot-loose, just for all the world like travelling 
for one's health. Ellis exults over it, and adds : 

" Along; the road and at all the towns we could look 
at places, and walk about and see the inhabitants. And 
we noticed that everywhere they were mixed with Indian, 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 133 

but of a kind friendly disposed. They were exceedingly 
kind to us, presenting us with fruits, clothes, and money, 
so that, by the time we reached Chihuahua, we began to 
think we would soon regain our liberty." 

Why, it was as fine as a triumphal procession of bull- 
fighters. The whole memorandum shows that Bean was 
a close observer, and deeply interested in new people and 
scenes. 

After a few days in prison at Chihuahua, they were 
given much liberty, though required to sleep in the sol- 
diers' barracks at night. Each man was allowed a quarter 
of a dollar a day for provisions — not bad, considering. 
And finally they were paroled, some going to other towns. 
Now Bean's genius begins to shine. He set up as a 
hatter. He had n't ever made a hat, but could turn his 
hand deftly to any trade, — as was the case with most 
frontier farmers in the dear primitive days when everyone 
found it necessary to practise artisanship variously. He 
found a merchant who trusted him for materials, then he 
employed two Mexican hatters. Soon he had a reputa- 
tion for excellent hats, and extended the business till, 
as he asserts, he made as high as fifty to sixty dollars a 
week. He laid up money to make his escape, and pre- 
pared for it by buying four horses, three guns, and three 
brace of pistols. This was after he had worked four years 
at establishing a manufacturing business. 

Such conditions for a war prisoner seem strange, but 



134 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the explanation lies in the fact that the case of these 
nine Americans had been submitted to the Spanish 
King at Madrid, for decision as to their fate, and such 
a long time elapsed without hearing from his Majesty 
that the authorities began to consider the case gone by 
default. In truth, Bean says his companions appeared 
to be contented and happy, all having taken up vari- 
ous occupations. As for himself, he could not bear 
living under a tyranny, however mild ; and so he wrote 
to one of his old comrades whom he liked, to attempt 
an escape with him. 

That was his undoing. The letter fell into the 
hands of another of his party, an unprincipled beggar, 
who immediately reported it to the commanding offi- 
cer at Cliihuahua, hoping thus to ingratiate himself 
with that authority. Bean seemed to take delight 
in publishing to an abhorring world that " this rene- 
gade was Tony Waters, of Winchester, Va."" It is not 
known what Tony got for his treachery, but Ellis was 
soon in a dungeon and again in irons. They also put 
him in stocks for a while. The hat business went into 
the hands of a receiver ; it is not hard to guess whom, 
— the commandant directing things. And the halcyon 
days of Bean were over. 

One day one of his comrades came to Bean''s cell, 
extremely ill. He just wanted to be with a country- 
man during his last days, even in a dungeon. Ellis 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 135 

sent out and got wine and delicacies for him, and 
wanted him to go to more comfortable quarters, but 
the sick man refused. Sad days followed, and in the 
midst of their affliction a most grotesque annoyance 
was thrust upon them in the form of a big Indian, 
charged with murder, who played a jevv's-harp (his 
sole possession) so incessantly that both Bean and his 
sick friend nearly went frantic. They begged him for 
pity of humanity to stop, but he heeded it not — 
went right on twanging over and over again snatches 
from the most distracting ragtimes of the day. They 
wanted him to rest awhile, but he thanked them and 
said he was n't tired. It was the most remarkable 
case of Indian torture recorded. The sick man began 
to rave. Bean's madness took a different form. He 
snatched the instrument of torture from the musical 
barbarian, and broke the tongue out of it. Then the 
Indian got mad. He came at Bean with a rush. 
Both were ironed, Ellis having on two pair of the 
impediments ; but he laid the musician low. The sick 
friend died three days later. 

After three months they let Bean out again. He met 
Tony Waters, and says he might have killed him, but 
only challenged him. Waters refused to fight. Ellis 
then went with a good stick and gave him such a 
beating that it was several days before he was able to 
crawl to the alcalde and lodge a complaint. But the 



136 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

alcalde knew about the cause and refused to order 
Bean's arrest; whereupon Waters declared he was not 
given justice, and on that was sentenced to jail for a 
month for contempt. 

The unfortunate adventurers had now been five years 
in Mexico. Their case had been laid before President 
Jefferson, but he said they must stand the consequences 
of their acts. They seemed to think it was the duty 
of their government to rescue them, apparently having 
little idea of the flagrant nature of their offence. 

Bean now set out alone to escape, but was caught 
and again ironed. His old companions also were 
brought in and shackled. They blamed him for his 
rash attempt. But something was coming. The Span- 
ish monarch had leisurely reached their case and passed 
on it. In a few days two priests — " parsons," Bean calls 
them — were ushered in to the convicts. " Asked what 
was going to be done with us, they answered that they 
had come for us to confess, if we wished our sins to be 
forgiven." 

It was now understood they were to be put to 
death. Most of them confessed, but Bean refused, 
and said he must have four or five days to recollect 
all his sins. "The parsons advised me to begin, and 
God would enlighten me, and help me to remember 
them." 

The question was, whether they were all to be hanged. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 137 

Bean thought his friend Tony Waters deserved it, anyhow, 
" being the greatest villain of the lot." But the next day 
the priests came again, and with them a colonel in full 
uniform, who read the King's order. It was that every 
fifth man was to be hanged for firing on the King's troops. 
But in view of there now being only nine of them, the 
local magistrate had decided that a faithful execution 
of the sentence required that only one need die. 

Into the prison were brought a drum, a tumbler, and 
a set of dice. They were now to gamble for their lives. 
The question of which one was to die was to be decided 
by the dice. These they threw from the tumbler upon 
the drumhead. The oldest threw first. Bean, being the 
youngest, threw last. He who threw the lowest lost. 
" And so we went up, one by one, to cast the awful throw 
of life or death ! " The man who threw next to Bean got 
four, the lowest. Bean threw five. 

After the execution Bean and four others were sent to 
Acapulco, on the west sea-coast. They were considered 
a dangerous lot. Each was double-shackled, and a guard 
of twenty-five soldiers conducted them. Bean says the 
officer in command gave them easy-riding horses. They 
went by the City of Mexico, nine hundred miles, as he 
counted it, from Chihuahua. The people in the towns 
came as usual to see them. At Salamanca they " halted 
in a large square, enclosed by high walls and houses," so 
that the prisoners were given much liberty. 



138 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Here the doughty young Tennesseean made his first 
heart conquest in Mexico, at least the first he tells us 
about. This romance at Salamanca is related very cir- 
cumstantially by the hero, and carries the heartbeat of 
tropical climes. A young woman, beautiful and sympa- 
thetic, fell into conversation with Bean, and, becoming 
much impressed with his appearance and qualities, slyly 
asked him if he did not wish to escape. Bean replied 
sadly that it was impossible, and that he was resigned to 
his fate. 

His words and manner of speaking went far, — he could 
hardly have answered her more effectively to heighten her 
interest in him. She declared she could free him, and 
went away. Upon inquiry Bean learned that she was 
Seiiora Maria Baldonada, and that she had recently been 
married to a very rich man much older than herself. 
Perhaps she, too, desired to escape. 

Bean was thinking hard when he lay down on his 
mat in a corner of the great yard, while yet, long after 
dark, the people kept coming and going, laughing and 
singing, — when would these careless and indolent people 
sleep? Presently the senora came again, in company with 
a very dark man in a long cloak. He might have been 
either a professional patriot or a pirate. The senora 
whispered to Ellis that this man had brought files to cut 
off his irons, and that he should follow him into a stable 
for the purpose. After his irons were off, she said, a man 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 139 

on top of the wall would drop him a rope, pull him up 
to the top, and then conduct him to where she would be 
waiting. 

The beautiful Maria had been busy. The brigandish 
fellow stood silently by, his arms folded, his files and deadly 
instruments under his long cloak. One would have sup- 
posed that so daring a scamp as Bean would have sprung 
to the chance, but he declined the proffered aid. He says 
it was because his companions would have been made to 
suffer extra hardships had he escaped, and so replied to 
Seiiora Maria. She suggested that he should take care 
of himself and let God take care of all ; that she had 
several haciendas, at one of which he might secrete him- 
self. But whatever his reason, he would not take the 
venture. 

The next morning he visited the senora at her house, 
giving the soldiers who guarded him drink-money to 
solace themselves with during his call. At this interview 
she told him she had been married against her desires ; 
that she did not feel really bound to a husband whom 
she did not love, and proposed again that he escape with 
her, this time suggesting bribing the soldiers and taking 
their horses. She was ready to open her purse in the 
execution of her plans — she had already done that. 
She would go and spend her life with him in his own 
country, trusting to his honor not to desert her for 
another- 



140 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Bean hesitated — and the guard returned. And he 
relates with a sigh, " the soldier helped me on my horse, 
and I bid adieu to the lovely Maria Baldonada." 

One may suspect that she was not so beautiful as the 
adventurer would have us believe, or that, as he told her, 
he expected to be set free when he reached Mexico, and 
did not feel like taking desperate chances. The senora 
showed sadness at his refusal, and said that when he was 
disappointed in his expectations he would remember her. 
Bean admits that during the next three years he often 
regretted he had not accepted her proposition. 

Before leaving his inamorata she had given him a pack- 
age and a letter, asking him to put them in his pocket 
and not to look at them till the end of the day"'s journey. 
They stopped that night at Arcos, and he impatiently 
opened them. He says that in the package he "found 
three joes in small gold pieces." He gives a copy of 
the letter, which is really touching in its expressions, 
and could hardly have been written by one devoid of 
education or refinement. She wrote that she was not 
ashamed to own that the love she felt for him was 
more than she could bear. "Perhaps," she continued, 
"you may think a woman demented who could love one 
in your situation, bound in irons. When I first saw you 
I was touched with compassion ; then I found my heart 
distressed ; and when I came to examine myself, I found 
it to be love." 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 141 

This really worked upon Ellis's feelings. He acknowl- 
edges he was unhappy, and could not pass the time as 
usual. But there were other things to concern him when 
he arrived at Mexico, and was cast into a prison yard 
with three hundred other convicts, mostly Indians and 
negroes. 



CHAPTER VI 



Continuation of Ellis Bean's Experiences in Captivity — Becomes a 
Mexican Insurrectionist — War and Romance. 

FTER a time the 
prisoners were sent 
along to Acapulco, 
which seaport Bean 
described as having 
i= a strong fortifica- 
tion, the castle being 
of stone, the walls 
y\ twelve feet thick, de- 
fended by a hundred 
guns of large cali- 
bre. Bean, marked 
as extra-dangerous, 
— although he mod- 
estly refrained from 
telling what he had done to merit that distinction — was 
segregated in a cell, small and tight and dismal, between 
the thickest walls. Light came economically through 
a small window, or hole, at one end, which was cross- 
barred. In the door was an opening three inches square. 




THE GLORY SEEKERS 143 

He would have preferred less privacy, but all his 
scheming to reduce it was long in vain. He became neigh- 
borly with the guard who, for a dollar, bought him a small 
knife ; but it did him little good here. His joyous occu- 
pation of seeing the country seemed to have ended for all 
time in this sarcophagus three thousand miles from home. 
He might as hopefully have been a toad in a well. 

It was here that he found his pet lizard, about which 
he tells a story that matches some of Baron Trenck's. It 
was what the Spaniards called a quija, so Ellis stated, 
some nine or ten inches long, about three inches thick, 
and as white as snow. It had a good singing voice and, 
according to the memoir, "if you hold it between you 
and the light, you may see the bones in its limbs and 
body." 

Watching the little visitor. Bean saw that it was trying 
to catch flies. He did not know whether or not it was 
poisonous, but in his painful desolation he warmed toward 
the little reptile, and set about trying to feed it. This 
opened up a diversion. He caught flies, impaled them 
on a straw from the mat, and, slipping them toward the 
shy creature, he at length got it to take them. Confi- 
dence was followed by friendly intimacy, the lizard taking 
flies from the hand. " Every morning as he came down 
the wall he would sing like a frog, giving me notice of 
his coming. In about a week he was so gentle he did 
not leave me at night, but stayed with me all the time. 



144 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

When the guard opened the door he would get frightened, 
and hide under my blanket. I found that he was sin- 
cerely my friend. In fact, he was my only companion and 
amusement." 

After eleven months Bean found that some of his com- 
pany had sickened, and were in the hospital. Feeling 
that any change was desirable, he complained of being ill, 
and asked to be sent to the cure-house, too. The prison 
doctor was sent for. Upon hearing him coming, Bean 
struck his elbows against the wall, which raised his pulse 
so high the medic thought he had a fever. So an order 
was made, and a muscular peon carried him on his back 
half a mile to the hospital. Evidently they suspected 
him, for, although he had on both manacles and shackles, 
they added to his security by placing his legs in stocks 
also. Or perhaps it was a way they had of treating fever 
— not much more absurd than some remedies in general 
use in that day. 

As he was now fixed, Bean could hardly turn ; and he 
tells that thousands of chinches took mean advantage of 
it, to feed upon him day and night. They had no regular 
hours for meals — they just kept on biting. Now this 
was such unusual hospital treatment that Ellis got well 
the next day and begged to be taken back to his cell. 
But they were not so ready to attend to his wishes ; and 
it was peculiarly fortunate, for in the evening he was 
taken with a violent fever, real enough. Bean's simple 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 145 

explanation was that it was caused by being removed from 
a place where there was no air to one where there was too 
much. But might not there have been something in the 
transmission of fever germs by the chinches ? 

He was very ill twenty days before he began to recover. 
It was a time of great sickness in the town. The hospital 
was crowded. A suffering man was laid on each side of 
him. One died in about three hours. Next morning two 
more were dead close by. Yet he improved. As he 
recuperated he developed an appetite that was a scandal. 
The hospital heads were shocked, and sought to alleviate 
it by administering two ounces of bread and some gruel in 
the morning, and the head of a fowl and some soup for 
dinner. He still had some money, but was not permitted 
to buy anything. As he was half-starved he growled, and 
asked the priest who served him why it was he always 
got the head and neck of the chicken, and no other part. 
The priest answered him curtly, — he declares profanely, — 
which must have shocked Bean, who thereupon slammed 
the plate at the holy father. It cut his tonsured pate 
open, and the outraged patient followed it up with the 
water-pot, which fortunately missed its shining mark. 

This violent action not only skinned the convalescent's 
ankles badly against the shackles, but entirely exhausted 
him. It also greatly enhanced his previous reputation 
of a bad man. So they locked the ravenous invalid's 
head in a wooden stock for fifteen days, keeping him 

10 



146 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

practically in one position all of that time. The chinches 
now fairly revelled on him. What a human being may 
suffer under such conditions is too excruciating to dwell 
upon. Bean says frankly that he regretted not having 
killed the priest, as in that event they would have taken 
his life, and thus put an end to his tortures. 

But when they released him from the stock they also 
took off his shackles and replaced them with a chain of 
about fifteen pounds' weight fastened to each ankle. Yet, 
by wrapping them around his waist, he could manage very 
well. 

On the road back to the castle — he now being " well "" 
— under two guards, the desire to try an escape was irre- 
sistible. He had no further longing for conquest, he wds 
not even enthusiastic about seeing more of the country. 
He wanted merely to go home. So he invited his guards 
to enter a gax'den " where a woman sold a kind of small- 
beer." Bean politely ordered some for his keepers. Then 
he set the mugs flowing again. After which he conceived 
an intense admiration for the fragrant pinks growing in 
the garden, as large as roses. Long quaffing of the 
small-beer made the soldiers admire the pinks, also. 
Ellis offered to buy one of them a bunch if he would 
come out in the garden. The soldier complied. But just 
as the fellow was about to accept the posy. Bean caught 
him by the neck with one hand and with the other 
placed a knife at his throat — the knife he had induced 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 147 

the guard at the castle to buy for him for domestic 
purposes. 

" Give up your sword or I '11 kill you ! " 

The order was so stern the soldier winced. Feeling 
that he was in desperate hands he meekly inquired 
what was the meaning. 

" I'm going on a journey," said Ellis, " and need a 
sabre like that. I need a man, too. Come with me 
and save your neck. Otherwise they '11 hang you for 
losing me." 

This was logical. Seeing that he had sadly erred, 
and fearing the consequences, the guard consented. 
Still, Bean hardly dared trust him. He sent him with 
a dollar to buy bread at a near-by shop, and he not 
returning as quickly as he might, Ellis struck off alone. 
In a few minutes he was in the woods. He managed 
to cut off his chains with a steel he had picked up, one 
used to strike fire. And now he was free to drink in 
the delights of liberty amid sweet-smelling blossoms and 
beautiful foliage musical with the songs of brilliant- 
plumaged birds. He says he was not weak, though 
he had been so long ill and starved, but felt strong 
and happy in the ineffable sense of liberty. 

At night he ventured to a small shop and bought 
bread, bacon, and cheese, and a gourd of native brandy. 
Passing another shop he heard two men talking. They 
were speaking English — with a brogue. Bean looked 



148 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

cautiously in, then entered. The men he had heard 
proved to be two Irish sailors from a privateer in port 
that day from Lima. He briefly told them his situa- 
tion, and they took him to the captain on the brig. 
Rigged in sailors clothes he went on board like a jolly 
tar, thinking he was safe. In truth, he ought to have 
been, for they took the precaution to thwart the search 
for him which they suspected would be made. The 
head of a great water-pipe was broken in, and Bean 
took up his abode in it against the hour of sailing. 

Sure enough, a patrol came to search, but not finding 
him returned to shore. Now all was well, with the vessel 
to sail in two hours, — but what then ? Why, a grumpy 
Portuguese cook aboard, a gi-easy old tar-stew, having a 
grudge against the sailors who befriended the stowaway, 
quietly went ashore and reported the man in the water- 
pipe. 

Down came the patrol again stronger than before. 
They rolled out the pipe, dragged Bean out, tied him 
like a package for a long shipment, and he might as 
well have been a sack of beans, considering the way 
they threw him down into the lighter. He was badly 
bruised, and heartsick beyond thinking. In an hour 
they had him back in his naiTow cell in the grim 
castle, and in double irons. It was like waking up in 
his stone coffin after a delectable dream of freedom, 
and green woods, and merry friends ! Like a true 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 149 

philosopher, however, he consoled himself with the 
thought that he had enjoyed a few hours of life and 
happiness, rather than allow his spirits to darken over 
a renewal of his misery. 

When he again became accustomed to the quarter- 
light he found there to greet him, his little friend, the 
lizard, with which he divided his boiled beef once a day. 
Ellis Bean was not all bad, by a good deal. His 
appreciation of nature and friendship with dumb things 
answer for that. He named his white, translucent lizard 
" Bill,"" took it into his pallet, and played with it. One 
day a good old priest came to see the lizard, saying he 
had heard about it from the watch ; and when he 
observed the intimacy existing between the prisoner 
and the reptile, remarked that it was in the power of 
man to do anything if he would but turn his attention 
to it. And he gave Bean some small silver. 

One day Beau heard a woman singing. He squeezed 
up to the gi'ated hole in the wall, so as to see her. 
For some time before he had employed his time at twist- 
ing a cord out of the palmetto of his mat, making one 
several yards long. On seeing the woman, he called 
softly. She could see no one. He called again, and 
told her where he was. She was very, very sorry for 
him, prohracito ! Would she buy him some brandy, 
if he would throw her the money.? That she would, 
in pity. He flung out both silver and string, and then 



150 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

sat like a fisherman waiting for a bite — or rather, for 
a drink. 

Presently the kind woman called to him to pull, 
which he did with care, and hauled in a bladder of 
pulque. It not being full, he could just manage to 
work it through the grating. He drank and lay down. 
Soon his sorrows floated out at the grimy, grated 
window. Then he drank the rest of it. And this is 
the way the candid rascal puts himself on record about 
it to the rude scandalization of all total abstainers : " I 
can truly say that, during the year and five months I 
stayed in this cell the last time, the hour I was drunk 
and unconscious of everything was the only happy time 
I saw." 

But the light of day was about to break on him 
again. One morning when the inspectors came he 
heard them talking about blasting rocks, and saying no 
one understood placing the charges. Bean began to 
explain the method to them. Was he familiar with 
the work ? It was his original occupation. It was 
exactly in his line. Next day, under direction of the 
Governor, he was taken out and set at the work. His 
shackles were removed and a ten-foot chain fastened 
to each foot. At the place of work there were about 
forty prisoners employed, with about twenty soldiers 
to guard them. 

Bean made his matches in a house near by, where, of 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 151 

course, there was a woman. And some way the women 
were always good to him. He bribed this one to buy him 
twelve knives and keep them in her house till he needed 
them. She might have thought he would require them at 
fuse-making, but when he got her to lay in a little arsenal 
of pistols and cartridges, she must have suspected other 
objects. But she said nothing ; and now Ellis began stir- 
ring his fellow-prisoners to mutiny. They heeded, and 
thought it would be well, and he distributed his knives 
and pistols among the trustiest of them. 

At a signal he struck down his guard with a stone on 
the temple. The others attacked the soldiers each in his 
way. A panic ensued. The guards fled, those who had 
not been disabled, and the mutineers went in the opposite 
direction. But they separated badly. Bean making a run- 
ning fight in company with an old Spaniard, who was shot 
down, and then he found himself alone on a mountain- 
side. By hacking the blades of his knife and razor to- 
gether he improvised a saw, with which he cut off his 
chains. Then he encountered a former acquaintance, and 
after buying some food at a hut they pushed on together 
toward the coast with the hope of finding a ship. 

Ill-fortune was their shadow. Finding themselves sur- 
rounded they struck into a marsh of vines and tanglewood. 
For several days they beat about in this dense under- 
growth like foxes before the hounds. Having been so 
long unaccustomed to walking, Bean's feet soon were 



152 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

blistered and swollen so that he could not run. Even 
then he fought till he was Icnocked senseless. The thorns 
had made rags of his clothing, and had lacerated his flesh. 
Faint with hunger, he was carried first to Cajucan and 
placed in stocks. From there he was soon taken back to 
the castle at Acapulco, but instead of being thrown into 
his old cell, he was now chained to a powerful mulatto 
and turned into the court. 

The mulatto was told to take care of the dangerous 
white man, and to whip him if necessary. If he had killed 
him the officials no doubt would have felt relieved, and 
urged no heavy penalty ; for that Bean was giving them 
great trouble is obvious. Well, the yoked pair in the 
yard of course pulled unevenly. The mulatto, who Bean 
says was sullen and ugly-tempered, jerked his yoke-mate 
around rudely. Bean says nothing about his own temper, 
but we may imagine what it was, for he picked up part of 
a bulFs skull which had one horn on it and knocked the 
dark one down. Then he continued to beat him till he 
cried for mercy. When he was rescued by the guards 
the mulatto begged to be let loose from such a devil ; 
which request seemed reasonable and was granted. 

Now they took Bean and fastened one of their great 
solid convict- wheels around his neck, so immense that he 
could not reach the rim of it. Of all the various modes 
of punishment with which Bean grew familiar he says this 
was the queerest, and not the least disagreeable. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 153 

The reputation he had established may be judged by 
the fact that the Governor of the castle wrote to the vice- 
roy asking that this troublesome prisoner be sent to some 
other fort, as he was weary of him. In response the vice- 
roy ordered him transferred to Manila; but at this junc- 
ture affairs took an entirely new turn. 

Another insurrection broke out. Another revolutionist 
had started in to become the Washington of Mexico. 
This time it was Morelos, the ex-priest, who started out 
with five negroes to free some millions from tyranny ! He 
expected to throw off the Spanish power and establish a 
republic. His first point of attack was Acapulco, and be- 
fore reaching there it was reported he had been joined by 
several hundred men. This force becoming a menace, the 
Governor of the fort armed all the prisoners who would 
promise loyalty, — Bean with the others. But no sooner 
did this human explosive get into the ranks than he began 
to preach revolution himself. His fellow-soldiers were 
mostly Indians or half-breeds. They asked him what the 
republican movement meant. He told them — such of 
them as he dared trust — that it was a very great thing ; 
that the natives all should join it ; that it was the design 
to drive the Spaniards out, and then the natives would be 
generals and colonels and judges, and all the riches would 
fall into their hands. They all agreed that it was good, 
— a proper thing ; and promised to watch for an oppor- 
tunity to join the insurrectionists. 



154 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Bean and six others were picked to reconnoitre the 
rebels. He fell in with them, betrayed his companions, 
who were captured, and the whole squad was taken before 
Morelos. Bean found that the chief really had about one 
hundred and fifty men, twenty old guns in bad repair, a 
swivel, and six pounds of powder ; — but that was much 
more than he started with. 

Ellis joined the insurrectionists and at once began 
making powder, about which he had taken pains to 
learn something. He had women crush the saltpetre 
and sulphur on their metates — grooved stones for grind- 
ing corn. After arranging with Morelos, he returned 
to the Governor's command with an exciting story about 
how he had escaped after being captured by the rebels. 
He also entertained the Governor by telling him that 
Morelos had over one thousand fierce adherents well 
armed ; and also related some diverting tales concerning 
their prowess. 

By this time Bean had made about seventy-five 
"patriots" among the King''s men. He sent word to 
Morelos of the true situation of the royal army, where its 
artillery of four pieces was stationed, and advised him to 
attack that night with his whole force. Morelos followed 
the advice, the attack proving very successful for him. 
The traitors under the Governor turned against their com- 
rades, and most of the latter were captured. Morelos 
took five hundred and twenty-six prisoners. He now had 




Jose Maria Morelos 
Mexican revolutionist 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 155 

arms and ammunition. Bean was promoted colonel, and 
at once proposed to storm and plunder Acapulco. 

The guns of the strong fort at Acapulco covered the 
bay, having been placed as a defence against hostile attack 
from that quarter. Apparently the engineers who built 
the works never contemplated an insurrectionary attack 
by land ; so now there was little to protect the town from 
assault by the rebels. Morelos acceded to Bean's proposi- 
tion, and the American held such a keen grudge against 
the place that he made a pretty thorough raid of it. He 
came out with a lot of booty — some $30,000 in goods 
and $8000 in money. 

Bean was now a factor in the Morelos uprising. From 
the time that he and his seven surviving comrades arrived 
at Acapulco for incarceration, the chronicle of the Nolan 
expedition narrows to the recital of his individual exploits. 
The other members are hardly again mentioned in his 
memoir, although he asserts that he was the only one 
of the prisoner band who lived to return to the United 
States. The expedition perished to a man save only its 
Xenophon, who in the end had little to write besides the 
story of his own wanderings. And now he was aiding an 
attempt at revolution in the country against which he had 
set out with his puny designs of conquest. 

Bean followed up his auspicious beginning as a patriot 
warrior by fighting and winning two or three more 
engagements, in one of which he was painfully but not 



156 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

dangerously wounded. In another he ambushed a company 
of several hundred royalists which the Governor of Acapulco 
in person was leading against the republicans. Nearly the 
whole command was captured, including the Governor who 
had kept the now victorious leader in prison so long at the 
fort. But his Excellency was too badly wounded for the 
American to gloat over his captivity, and was sent back to 
the castle, where he soon died. 

After several months more of campaigning with vaiy- 
ing success, but steady accession to the insurgent force as 
there was also steady strengthening of the royal army, the 
rebels besieged the fort at Acapulco. A demand of sur- 
render, signed by Bean, was answered by a letter from 
the commandant offering him a colonePs commission and 
$10,000 reward if he would desert Morelos and join the 
King's army. But Bean was not to be caught by any such 
chaiF; he knew what the consequences were likely to be 
should the insurgents fail, and besides he hated the tyrant 
cause. So he returned a haughty refusal, answering that 
the King had not money enough to buy him or make him 
a tyrant's friend. 

About everything possible on land having happened to 
the adventurer, he now prepared to take to the water. 
Out in the bay was a small island with stores of provisions 
from which the fort was replenished. To take or destroy 
these supplies Bean constructed some twenty rude boats, 
and in them landed five hundred of his men on the island 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 157 

one calm night. At daylight he charged the defences 
and took everything. That day he fought and defeated 
(mainly through strategy) two schooners sent to resist 
him, one of which he disabled and captured. Now, having 
the source of supply cut off, the fort surrendered within a 
few days. Bean had lived to humble the royalists and 
capture the stronghold where, an alien and a life convict, 
he had suffered so long. The whimsical wheel of fortune 
does not match this every day. This was Bean's high- 
water mark of glory in his career as a Mexican patriot. 

In the memoir we are following several leaves are 
missing from the manuscript just after the events last 
noted ; and when we catch the thread again we find our 
subject at the house of a Mexican planter, whose wife is 
offering him her daughter in mari'iage, — something which 
the young lady herself very much encourages. It was at 
the house of a royalist, too, and they must all have taken a 
fancy to him, as they had procured him a King's pardon. 
Just what he had been doing through the missing leaves, 
and how he came to be in this household feasting on the 
fatted calves, with the daughter of the hacienda yearning 
over him, must be imagined. Being so sure of him, the 
family had prepared for the wedding, with priests, visitors, 
and the other accessories ; but the enforced candidate 
for nuptial honors ran away. He begged his excuses, 
and left the girl with a fond kiss (he boldly acknowledges 
it) and a promise to come back when the war was over. 



158 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

It is things like these in the rascal's account that in- 
cline one to doubt the universal loveliness of Mexican 
femininity in those days. 

Reverses came to Morelos, and the hard-pressed leader 
suggested that Bean make his way to the United States 
and instigate another campaign for conquest against 
Texas, so as to divide the attention of the royalists. The 
citizens of Tehuacan showed their confidence in the Ameri- 
can by raising a fund of $10,000 for him to use in the 
proposed enterprise. On the East coast he fitted out a 
small schooner, manned her with a crew from one of 
Lafitte''s privateers, — which means with a lot of pirates, — 
and sailed for Louisiana. 

During his relations with Morelos, Bean had become 
acquainted with a young woman of good family, related 
to the leader. Her people had lost their fortunes in the 
insurrection. This time the adventurer was not proof 
against Cupid's wiles. On his way to the coast to prepare 
for a return to his own country, he visited the young lady's 
family at their hacienda of Branderrillas, and before he 
departed he was married to Senorita Anna Gorthas, whose 
loveliness and whose virtues he speaks of with manifest 
emotion. And well he might, for her loyalty to him is a 
tribute to her noble qualities, while it is diflScult to com- 
prehend his conduct with regard to her. 

While preparing to leave the hacienda some days after 
his marriage, he was surprised by a troop of the enemy 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 159 

and had to take sudden flight. He relates that he barely 
escaped, without coat or money. They secured all his 
effects except two hundred doubloons, which his young 
wife buried in the sand. It was many years before he 
returned to her, and in the meanwhile a turn in political 
events made her rich. The republican insurgents were 
suppressed, Morelos was taken and shot. The sequestered 
estates of the Gorthas family were in time (after Mexican 
independence was achieved) restored, and so finally was 
Anna's inheritance. Quiet did not come to Mexico, but 
she lived in peace and hope on her gi-eat hacienda, sur- 
rounded by her servants and peon tenants, true to her 
soldier husband. 

It would be pleasanter if something as creditable could 
be said for him. His actions the next few years can be 
accounted for only on the supposition that he took it for 
granted he would never dare to return to Mexico. 

When he reached New Orleans with his schooner and 
pirate sailors he found that war was on again between 
Great Britain and the United States. Also he found that 
an old acquaintance, W. C. C. Claiborne, was Governor 
of Louisiana; further, he found another old Tennessee 
acquaintance in command of an army and grimly threaten- 
ing the Louisiana legislature for disloyal sentiments. 
Bean could no more have refrained from following General 
Jackson against the English than he could have loved 
Tony Waters. The English squadron was approaching, 



160 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

and he enlisted. However, he had previously become con- 
vinced that such an expedition as he had come to encour- 
age was out of the question ; so now he was assigned to the 
artillery, and served a twenty-four pounder at the battle 
of New Orleans. After the victory he got leave from 
Jackson to return to Mexico. Arriving at Vera Cruz, he 
gathered about him a small company, set out on a journey 
of six hundred miles to join Morelos, and got to him with 
only six men. On learning of the non-success of Bean's 
journey, Morelos determined to send an ambassador to the 
United States to solicit aid ; and with him Bean returned 
to this country. Soon after their arrival here Morelos was 
taken, and his insurrection was at an end. 

Feeling himself an outlaw in Mexico, the adventurer 
went to Natchez. It is presumed the rod which his irate 
uncle had laid up on the gun-rack for him more than a 
dozen years before was now obsolete. There, in a year or 
two, he married a Miss Midkiff, with whom and her father 
he removed to Arkansas. After the death of this father-in- 
law he went to Texas, where he lived till 1825. Whether 
his American wife died or not does not appear from the 
annals ; but in the year mentioned he went once more to 
Mexico, a republic having at last been established there, 
rejoined his faithful Anna, and died on her estate in 1846. 



CHAPTER VII 



Reuben Kemper, Buccaneer — Unlawful Seizure of Baton Rouge District 
— Early-Day Terrorism — Characters that have been Whitewashed — 
Grotesque Campaign against Mobile District. 

FTER the survey of 
the boundary line 
between the United 
States and the Flor- 
idas in 1797, it was 
hoped the prejudice 
and ill feeling that 
had been engender- 
ed by one reason 
or another between 
the Americans and 
the residents of the 
Spanish possessions 
would be allayed. 
But such happy re- 
sults were not realized. The irritation in the Mississippi 
region was not soothed away even by the passing of Louisi- 
ana to the Americans, early in 1804. 

A bitter controversy now arose concerning the Louisiana 
boundary. The purchase of that great Tenitory from 

11 




162 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

France, or rather, from her First Consul, had not been 
consummated in a manner to forestall such disputes. In 
all that has been written in the multitude of memoirs of 
those who happened for a period to be near Napoleon, 
from Bourrienne to his last gossipy physician, nothing 
gives a more intimate glimpse into that unknowable man's 
character than two simple incidents of this transaction. 

Mr. Livingston, one of the American negotiators, grew 
restive under the slow progress of the business, and one 
day hinted to Joseph Bonaparte, with whom he was on a 
friendly footing, that if he would make a brotherly sug- 
gestion to the First Consul as to certain matters pending, 
it would hasten a conclusion. 

"I will gladly do so," Joseph replied in substance. 
" We are good brothers, and I may always talk with him. 
But I promise no more. My brother has no counsellors 
— he is his own adviser." 

And finally, when the deal was closed and the treaty 
drawn up, Marbois, who had really conducted the negoti- 
ation for France, or her ruler, asked the latter if he had 
observed in the document a lack of definite boundary de- 
scriptions of the territory conveyed to the United States. 

" No," replied Napoleon, " but if there is no obscurity 
about them already there, you had better put one in." 

It flashed on his mind that boundary complications 
might involve his friendly purchaser in trouble with Spain 
and England, who had provinces adjoining Louisiana; 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 163 

and, of course, a row between those powers would most 
likely prove to his own advantage. 

In regard to Louisiana and Napoleon, it was not a few 
pigmies alone who in America dreamed of establishing a 
great empire over the Southwestern part of this continent. 
With the retrocession of the province by Spain to France 
it was expected by many that there was the beginning of 
great things. That Napoleon pondered deeply over the 
possibilities of empire in the new world, there is much 
good reason for believing. It is asserted that he had 
chosen Bernadotte as the instrument well adapted to 
working out his lofty designs. He was aware of Berna- 
dotte''s great abilities, and coz'respondingly jealous of his 
exercise of them in France. If they could be directed to 
creating a nation in America that would at once be de- 
pendent on and a support to France, a triple purpose 
would be subserved. 

Pickett says in his history that Napoleon probably had 
in view the ultimate conquest of a portion of the United 
States, to be added to Louisiana, and that he was con- 
sidering plans of sending a large army across the ocean for 
that service. Of course. Napoleon saw visions ; he may 
have seen this kind, and he may not. But it is an exceed- 
ingly interesting problem to consider what might have 
transpired on this continent, in that marvellous era between 
1800 and 1814, with Bernadotte's military and administra- 
tive genius at work moulding an empire out of the great 



164 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Southwest under the guardianship of Napoleon, and 
neither of them being at all reverential toward the terri- 
torial rights of the young American republic. Whether 
or not Napoleon had any such dreams, it can unhesitatingly 
be said that he had far more foolish ones. 

The territory under hot dispute immediately after the 
Louisiana Purchase was that lying between the thirty-first 
degree of latitude on the North, Bayou Iberville on the 
South, the Mississippi River on the West, and Pearl River 
on the East. This had been organized by Spain into a 
District, called the Government of Baton Rouge, and 
placed under command of Don Carlos de Grandpre. It 
comprised parts of Baton Rouge, Mancha, Thompson''s 
Creek, and Bayou Sara. 

A controversy also arose about " Mobile District," 
between Pearl and Perdido Rivers and the Gulf. The 
United States claimed these two districts with her deed of 
Louisiana, arguing that Napoleon transferred everything 
he got from Spain ; and surely he got those from Spain. 
But Spain would not admit it. She countered with the 
assertion that just before the close of the American Revo- 
lution she herself became engaged in war with England ; 
that she took by conquest the " Mobile District,"" then 
part of West Florida ; that in 1783 Great Britain con- 
firmed this by treaty, and that the territory had always 
been considered a part of West Florida, thus denying 
that Napoleon could make any cession of it. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 165 

Now it all depended upon whether the districts had 
been parts of Louisiana or West Florida ; and it looked 
as though one nation's claim on this point was as good as 
another's. The people of Mississippi, bordering on the 
disputed parcels, stoutly maintained that the contention 
of their country was valid ; the lands were rich, and they 
wanted them for themselves. As a fact, that had more to 
do v/ith convincing them of the justice of the American 
claim than any analysis of the conditions. 

These disputed tracts are thus referred to here be- 
cause connected with them is one of the most remarkable 
episodes, as it is distinctly one of the most discreditable, 
in the early history of our country ; an episode too often 
condoned by writers and politicians, and too readily for- 
gotten by the people. And further, because it is necessary 
in giving a sketch of the buccaneer Reuben Kemper, whose 
chief exploits are noted in their annals. 

Many residents of Mississippi settled " over the line "^ in 
Baton Rouge, while the boundary line dispute was under 
negotiation for settlement by the two governments. Others 
moved near the line ready to cross. Among the latter 
were Reuben, Nathan, and Samuel Kemper. They were 
sons of a Baptist preacher, natives of Virginia, and for 
a while had lived with their father in Ohio. The family 
came to Mississippi in 1803, and established itself near 
Pinckneyville. 

The brothers were boisterous frontiersmen, Reuben 



166 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

being of huge frame, loud voice, and an addi'ess that 
passed for affability. Among his accomplishments, be- 
sides those of knife and gun, was his profanity, which the 
men of his school pronounced unusually " eloquent."" He 
and his brothers are reported in some accounts to have 
acquired land grants fi'om Spain in the Baton Rouge 
District, which they knew would be very valuable if the 
country were opened to Americans. It was a desire to 
speculate on the grants of land given them for their own 
occupancy under Spanish laws and restrictions, that they 
began scheming to dispossess the Spaniards. 

However, there is doubt if they had even so much of an 
excuse for their threatened raid. Governor Grandpre 
heard so much about their boasts and menaces that he 
foolishly determined to arrest and lock them up. He sent 
eight hired kidnappers to the house of Nathan Kemper 
at twelve ©""clock on the night of September 3, 1805. 
Nathan's residence was on the American side of the line. 
The kidnappers employed were citizens of Mississippi Ter- 
ritory. Their names were Ritchie, Kneeland, Butler, 
Bomer, McDermott, and Flowers, with two Hortons. 
These men took along seven negroes, and the party was 
armed with guns, clubs, and ropes. 

Reuben was sleeping at his broth er"'s house, when the 
door was quietly forced. The posse entered the room in 
which he lay, dragged him from his bed, beat him with 
clubs, and then bound him. They went through the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 167 

same ceremony with Nathan. His wife ventured to inter- 
fere, and was threatened with death. She was struck in 
the scuffle. The brothers were severely used. They 
begged to know what they had done to merit such harsh 
treatment. 

" You have ruined the Spanish country ! " was the only 
answer returned by the captors. 

Reuben and his brother were gagged, lines were tied 
around their necks, and they were then made to run before 
the horses which the kidnappers rode, to within the Spanish 
lines. At the same hour another party had visited the 
tavern kept by Samuel Kemper at Pinckney ville ; they 
beat, gagged, and pinioned him, and carried him off in 
the same way. Running by the side of the horses, Sam 
fell, having been unable to keep up, and was dragged 
about a hundred yards by the rope around his neck. All 
three were delivered to Captain Solomon Alston, in the 
service of the Spanish governor, who took them to Tunica 
Landing, and placed them in a boat under guard for 
Baton Rouge. 

This was a barbarous proceeding, to be sure — similar 
to what the victims had been threatening against the 
Spaniards. But the cruel game had only begun. 

A Doctor Towles, visiting a patient early on the morn- 
ing of the raid, heard of it. He galloped his horse to 
Point Coupee and informed Lieutenant Wilson, the 
American commandant there, of the outrage. Wilson got 



168 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

under motion at once with a squad of soldiers and rescued 
the Kempers, also capturing their Spanish guard. The 
latter had not been active in the raid. They were sent 
to the town of Washington together with the Kempers. 
The case was heard by a Judge Rodney, and all parties 
were discharged. 

The Kempers now were furious and vengeful. They set 
to work among their kindred spirits and got together a 
company, pledged to the enterprise of expelling the Span- 
ish inhabitants from the District and subverting the 
Government of Baton Rouge. Such a movement had 
been contemplated. Revenge now forced it. They sent 
no memorial to the United States government, not even 
to the Governor of Mississippi. They were " the people," 
and backed by the people; styled themselves "patriots,"" 
apparently for the reason that they were bent on deserting 
the country of which they were lawful citizens and enter- 
ing one in which, so far as their knowledge and authority 
went, they were interlopers, to dispossess the people 
who, so far as they could say, were the rightful owners 
of it. 

They gathered a large crowd, and organized at St. 
Francis for their predatory movement. They elected their 
officers, issued arms, ammunition, and other outfits. All 
being ready, they marched down on Baton Rouge and took 
the place by surprise. That is, they made a murderous 
assault on the unsuspecting inhabitants, killed several of 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 169 

them, including Louis Grandpre, son of the Governor, 
who with a few crippled veterans occupied the fort, and 
drove the others from their homes and lands. 

Just how many were murdered by the onslaught of the 
American " patriots " the accounts do not specify ; but the 
invaders chased the wretched survivors clear to Pensacola, 
seized the military post, and set up their own authority. 
But they were not yet satisfied. Mr. Pickett observes : 

" As the Americans at this period, and for a long time 
previously, were fruitful in plans to form governments 
independent of the Union, so the ' patriots,' many of whom 
were old Spanish subjects, now resolved to have one of 
their own. A convention assembled which adopted a 
declaration of independence very similar in tone and senti- 
ment to the one drawn by Thomas Jefferson. They de- 
clared their right and intention to form treaties and to 
establish commerce with foreign nations." 

Apparently, they had renounced allegiance to the 
United States and spurned the Declaration of 1776. 

With the spirit of ruthless conquerors, the creators of 
this new republic immediately began preparations to seize 
other Spanish territory, or at least, territory claimed by 
Spain, and the right to which was then a question in 
process of amicable adjustment between that government 
and their own. They proposed to capture and appropri- 
ate the District of Mobile. Rather strange, it seems at 
this day, and one reads with the expectation that the 



170 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Federal government would soon put a heavy hand on 
such wholesale outlawry against a friendly neighbor — and 
expects in vain. But our nation was then young. 

However, the first thing Reuben Kemper did was to 
wreak vengeance on such of his kidnappers as he could 
find. It will be observed from their names, given on a 
previous page, that the offenders were not Spaniards. 
Indeed, it is doubtful if they were even Spanish subjects. 
They, or at least some of them, it is reasonable to be- 
lieve, had come from the same part of Mississippi as the 
Kempers. Yet they had done the miserable work of the 
short-sighted Spanish governor. 

A recital of the revolting details of the punishments 
inflicted upon those miserable men is hardly pardonable, 
and is indulged only to the extent and for the purpose of 
showing the fierce character of Reuben Kemper, a man 
whose lawlessness has found respectable apologists — who 
has even been lauded, like many others of his brutal breed, 
as a gallant knight of the frontier. 

The first one captured was Kneeland. He was taken 
by Reuben and Samuel Kemper who, with the aid of hired 
assistants, tied him to a large tree, his arms pinioned 
around it. They then gave him one hundred lashes on 
the bare back. That was for themselves. Resting a 
minute, they resumed their work of vengeance and gave 
him one hundred additional lashes for their brother 
Nathan, who for some cause was denied the privilege of 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 171 

partaking in the exercises. This, by the way, was the 
process originally known as lynching ; in its early admin- 
istration the term did not imply the death penalty, — a 
fact made clear in the border-time chronicles. 

It is not stated in the original accounts of this affair 
whether the victim was still conscious after receiving the 
two hundred lashes, or able to walk ; but whether he was 
or not, his torture was not yet complete. The unmerciful 
Kempers cut off both his ears with a dull knife, and then 
left him, to live if he could. And he did live. It was an 
act, this awful wreaking of vengeance, which shows the 
quality of hatred frequently engendered among the des- 
perate citizens who predominated among the pioneers of 
the Southwest. Those amputated ears were long preserved 
in alcohol "and hung up by one of the Kempers in his 
parlor." After settling with Kneeland they went after 
one of the Hortons, caught him, and lashed him after the 
approved method " as long as he could take it and live." 
Then they looked up Bomer, found him in the court-room 
at Fort Adams while court was in session, took him from 
under the nose of the judge, dragged him out, and flayed 
him as vigorously as they had the others. 

That seems to have been the end of their direful ven- 
geance, although Captain Alston, to whom the Kempers 
had been delivered when they were taken over the Spanish 
line, suffered such severe exposure to the wintry elements, 
particularly by lying concealed in an open boat on the 



172 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

river, in evading his hunters, that he died soon afterward 
of dropsy. 

The cruelties of which the story has been given were not 
the acts of exceptionally hard characters of that time and 
region, but were committed by men who were leaders in 
influence and action ; who commanded, then and subse- 
quently, the respect and admiration of " the best families." 
Reuben Kemper came to be looked upon as a military 
hero (especially after his Texas exploits) and a true son of 
chivalry. Foote, himself a Mississippian and a prominent 
figure among the gentry of his State and once its Gov- 
ernor, declares in his history of Texas that Kemper was " a 
scion of noble Virginia stock, born in Fauquier County 
and worthy of it."" In fact this author, one of the elite of 
his section, relates that when he was a boy of thirteen he 
last saw Colonel Kemper at the residence of William Wirt, 
the celebrated lawyer and politician, in Virginia, where 
the ex-buccaneer was an honored guest, to whom Wirt 
paid deferential courtesy. He himself " was constrained to 
render full tribute of youthful admiration to the towering 
Achilles-like form and majestic aspect and demeanor of 
the chivalrous Texan commander [Kemper, as will be seen, 
having, after the valiant deeds now being related, joined in 
operations against Texas]. How one who had attempted 
to carry into execution the liberating policy of Colonel 
Burr happened to find favor so far as to be invited to the 
house of his (Burr's) distinguished prosecutor, is more 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 173 

than I can explain. I have always looked upon the inci- 
dent as a little curious." 

In sad truth, the spoliation and murder of Spanish 
subjects were not committed by desperadoes whose acts 
the gentry deplored, but by the gentry themselves ; and 
there is enough in the chronicles of the generation to 
show that the specific cases of cruelties cited were all too 
common, being practised by contentious families and 
factions upon each other as freely as by the lynchers upon 
captured outlaws. 

It is hardly a digression requiring apology to refer to 
Foote's characterization of Kemper, who was, during most 
of his life, engaged in brutal, criminal acts, — a profane 
braggart, a whiskey-guzzling, marauding, law-defying 
ruffian of the border. These were the real attributes of 
the man who was lauded as " the scion of noble Virginia 
stock and worthy of it." It is characteristic of the way 
too many of our state historians, especially those of the 
country under consideration, have had of treating frontier 
actors. Flagrant violations of justice, and acts even 
treasonable in their nature, are condoned or passed over 
with respectful acquiescence ; the consequence being that 
in time all come to be regarded alike as pioneers of forti- 
tude, invincible patriotism, and courage that always 
defended the right. 

Only one history out of a dozen that should have done 
so tells of the buccaneer seizure of Baton Rouge. Others 



174 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

refer to it merely as " border troubles,"" or dismiss it with 
the remark that "the Americans occupied the district." 
It is the same with the cyclopaedias. As Blount's treason- 
able correspondence is withheld, so Shelby's connivance 
with traitors is minimized. Their names, and Innes's, 
Sebastian's, George Rogers Clark's, Moultrie's, and Elijah 
Clarke's, are put into the category with names that never 
were tainted with treason ; and even Wilkinson's putrid 
record finds its scrivener whitewashers. 

Reuben Kemper, after the onslaught on the Spaniards, 
had now distinguished himself sufficiently to have the 
title of colonel given him, and the " patriots " having 
decided to seize Mobile District in the same manner that 
they had Baton Rouge, the convention — acting as the 
new government — sent him up the Tombigbee for the 
purpose of enlisting a company to assist in the new enter- 
prise. These recruits, as well as the other invaders, were 
all sturdy sons of liberty. The hatred of all the people of 
that valley country for the Spaniard facilitated Reuben's 
operations. He was readily joined by Colonel Joseph 
Caller, a man of wealth and influence, with whom Kemper 
lodged. These two raised troops secretly, loaded flatboats 
with arms and provisions, and sent them down the Tensaw 
River. 

A Major Kennedy now joined the scheme ; and he and 
Kemper collected a company of horse. Just how large 
a force they succeeded in raising does not appear. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 175 

Probably it was not formidable in numbers, but neither 
were the peaceable, law-abiding people they were to operate 
against. When they arrived at a point then known as 
White House, they bivouacked, and were joined by a 
company of original "patriots'" from Baton Rouge. 

Kemper, the chief in command, now sent a letter to the 
Spanish Governor of the district, Folch, demanding a sur- 
render. Folch was fortified in the town of Mobile. He 
could hardly have been ignorant during the several weeks 
past of what the Americans were up to, although he had 
lately taken command here. He seems to have treated 
the demand with contempt; and the actions of the in- 
vaders do not indicate that they possessed either courage 
or military skill. They camped, pioneer fashion, and 
after a while appointed a Doctor Holmes to captain a 
party of the volunteers and scour the country around for 
more provisions, arms, and apparently anything of value 
they could take. It was guerilla warfare. The inhabit- 
ants who suffered from the raid were Spanish subjects, and 
were entitled to the belief that their District was right- 
fully a Spanish possession. They were not at all dissatis- 
fied with the Spanish rule, for it exacted no onerous duties 
of them as it did from the Americans with whom they 
traded. They had no desire to aid the invaders, and 
secreted their valuables as best they could. 

Finally, the command "dropped down to the old fields 
near Minette Bay," fairly opposite Mobile, appropriating 



176 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

provisions and forage of the residents as they went, 
like any Hessians. But they did not attack; and they 
must have remained here for some time, as they were 
again becoming needy, when they were rejoiced by the 
coming down the river of a Captain Goss with a keelboat 
loaded with whiskey, corn, flour, bacon, and other encour- 
agement which the convention at Baton Rouge had con- 
siderately sent to its army of conquest. It had been 
steered through the lakes and bayous. The supplies, 
notably the whiskey, stimulated the ardor and loyalty of 
the whole outfit, but instead of attacking the fortifications 
like real men of war they fell into the truly patriotic habit 
of making glowing speeches. The thrilling climax to 
these orations was always where the speaker pointed across 
to the ancient city which they would soon, by their prowess 
and other miglity qualities, capture and possess. 

But this sort of warfare, with almost an entire lack of 
army discipline, began to be demoralizing. Quarrels 
sprang up ; there was a little promiscuous knifing, and 
some shooting frays ; cold rains fell, and the " army " was 
without tents. And still the Governor of the coveted 
Spanish post declined to honor their surrender demand. 

At length a Major Hargrove, whose military genius 
brightened with the stress of the occasion, took part of 
the command, and proceeded by boat twelve miles above 
Mobile, boldly facing possible disasters from alligators and 
driftwood. Having made this heroic voyage, they entered 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 177 

the historic bayou of Saw Mill Creek. This move proved 
a triumph, for here they found a fresh supply of whiskey, 
and also some fiddles ; and straightway the hardy veterans 
entered upon a course of frolics. They were to wait here 
for Colonel Kemper, who had retained command of the 
cavalry, what there was of it, and who was to swing that 
division around the town by the cut-ofF and join them. 
What advantage was to accrue from these brilliant 
manoeuvres the records fail to explain ; nor is it known 
what movement was intended next, for the reason that 
their plans and jolly roistering were interfered with most 
rudely. 

The story goes that an evil old man — a Spanish sub- 
ject, of course — who had visited the patriot camp and 
often drank with the besiegers, went one night to Gov- 
ernor Folch and told him how easy it would be to rush the 
invaders and capture the whole force. The Governor does 
not seem to have displayed the qualities of a Fabius any 
more than Kemper had those of a Hannibal ; for up to 
this time he had not made a move. Now he sent Colonel 
Paredes, the sub-commandant, with about two hundred 
men, troops and citizens, in boats up the river late one 
night, and they silently entered Saw Mill Creek to within 
a few rods of the Americans' camp. The latter were 
dancing and drinking and waking the night echoes, and 
had no sentinels on watch. The Mobiliers gave no hint 
of their coming, but suddenly, from out the darkness 

12 



178 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

mixed with canebrake, they fired on the unsuspecting 
fiddling American invaders, killed four of them, wounded 
a number, and put the rest to flight like a pack of 
rabbits. 

At a considerable distance Major Hargrove rallied some 
of those least frightened, and returned to contest the 
field. He put up a weak fight, however, and was soon 
overpowered. He and nine of his men were captured, 
placed in irons, carried down to Mobile, and thrown into a 
calaboose. After a time to ponder they were shipped to 
Havana and there placed in Morro Castle. 

Cyrus Sibley, another of the marauders, was subse- 
quently captured and recognized as the man who had 
brought to the Governor Kemper's impudent despatch 
demanding capitulation, and was sent to join his fellow- 
patriots in Morro. They all remained in that retirement 
for five years. The robustious Kemper, who had blatantly 
sworn to rid the American continent of the Spaniards, was 
entirely eclipsed. He and his followers who escaped cap- 
ture made no further attempt to take Mobile. Yet he 
continued a freebooter. 



CHAPTER VIII 



Insensibility of the American Government to Wrongs Committed hy 
Southwesterners — Buccaneers not even Rebuked — First Secession 
Utterances in Congress — Opposition to National Growth. 

HE independent 
government which 
Kemper and his 
fellow-buccaneers set 
up, including the 
power arrogated to 
it of making treaties 
and exercising other 
national functions, 
appears to have been 
somewhat for specu- 
lative purposes ; for 
very soon they be- 
gan trying to strike 
a bargain over it 

with the United States. This exhibition of effrontery was 

not resented by the government. 

The remarkable declaration of independence which they 

promulgated was ostensibly by " The Representatives of 

the People of West Florida." That is what they called 




180 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

themselves. The document reads as if it were the utterance 
of the people living in the district who had by their own 
act rebelled for righteous causes and overthrown the 
authority of Spain. Some of the people involved in the 
usurpation lived in the district, yet by far the most of 
them were residents of the Territory of Mississippi. Prac- 
tically all of them were Americans, and not Spanish sub- 
jects. They took it into their own hands to enter the 
disputed district, to make war, murder or expel the inhab- 
itants, and subvert the government — " appealing to the 
Supreme Ruler of the world for the rectitude of our in- 
tentions."" 

They forwarded a copy of this impious declaration to 
the President of the United States. One John Rhea, who 
had been elected president of the West Florida convention, 
addressed a communication to the Secretary of State in 
which he prayed for annexation of " the Commonwealth 
of West Florida'''' to the United States. He stipulated, 
however, on behalf of the people of his commonwealth, for 
all the unlocated lands within its limits, to which he 
asserted they were entitled as a reward for having wrested 
the government and country from Spain at the risk of 
their lives and fortunes ! 

It seems as though they were seeking to federate with 
the Union rather than to enter it as one of the States. 
At least they demanded special privileges, and among their 
stipulations were those for unqualified pardons for all 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 181 

deserters from the American army and navy then residing 
within the " commonwealth," a most significant demand, 
together with exemption from further service in the army 
or navy of the Union. 

On mature reflection these precious outlaws must have 
marvelled at their own moderation in not levelling any 
threat of vengeance against the United States, should that 
government not comply. The only intimation of their 
power was that as a federated State it would add to the 
prestige and strength, as well as the prosperity, of the 
Federal Union ! Not on the American continent has any- 
thing more impudent been done by a few hundred lawless 
adventurers, and one eagerly reads on to discover what 
action the government took concerning it. 

There is nothing to show that the declaration was not re- 
ceived by the President, and Rhea''s address by the Secre- 
tary of State, with any other than respectful consideration ! 
Not a suggestion of punishment, not even a rebuke ! 
President Madison, after consulting with the cabinet, 
decided that the government must take immediate posses- 
sion of the District of West Florida, and on Oct. 27, 
1810, issued a proclamation. In view of the facts as 
shown, and of the admission by the President as to disputed 
territory and uncompleted negotiations, this proclamation 
is as startling to a straight-thinking American of to-day 
as the declaration of the Kemperites. 

It declares the described territory, of which possession 



182 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

was not delivered to the United States with Louisiana, 
had been considered and claimed as part of Louisiana. 
That the acquiescence of the United States in the tempo- 
rary continuance of the territory under Spanish authority 
was not because of any distrust of our title, but was occa- 
sioned by our conciliatory views, and by a confidence in the 
justice of our cause, and in the success of amicable negotia- 
tions with a just and friendly power. " And whereas a 
satisfactory adjustment too long delayed, without the 
fault of the United States, has for some time been entirely 
suspended by events over which they had no control ; and 
whereas a crisis has at length arrived, subversive of the 
order of things under the Spanish authorities, whereby a 
failure of the United States to take the said territory into 
its possession may lead to events ultimately contravening 
the views of both parties ; whilst in the meantime the 
tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories are 
endangered, and new facilities given to violators of our 
revenue and commercial laws, and of those prohibiting the 
introduction of slaves ■" ; and further, considering that 
further forbearance of the United States to take hold 
might be construed into a dereliction of their title, or an 
insensibility of the importance of the stake ; considering 
also that in the hands of the United States it will not 
cease to be a subject of fair and friendly adjustment, the 
President, in pursuance of these mighty and urgent consid- 
erations, has deemed it right and requisite that possession 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 183 

be taken of the said territory by the United States ; and 
that W. C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Orleans Territory, of 
which said Territory is to be taken as part, exercise 
over it the authorities and functions legally appertaining 
to his office. And the good people were to be obedient 
under assurance of protection of liberty, property, and 
religion ! 

In its studied evasion of the enormity of the offence 
which had been committed against Spain, "a just and 
friendly power," its mixture of truth and error, shifty ex- 
cusings, and patronizing innuendo, the paper is more 
worthy a Talleyrand than the chief executive of the 
American Union. 

This was the extent of the retribution coming to 
Kemper and his party, so far as the sovereign'power of the 
national government was concerned. Spain must have 
been highly edified at the touching confidence expressed in 
the results of amicable negotiation and ultimate happy 
arrangement of the matter. Strangely enough, Spain made 
little outcry, the reason being, as indicated by one of the 
speakers on the subject in Congi'ess some time later, that 
she was too submerged in trouble at home to pay any 
attention to it. 

But England, then the ally of Spain, did object. Mr. 
Morier, British minister at Washington, expressed deep 
regret at the determination to take West Florida, 
title to which was manifestly doubtful, — according to 



184 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the President's proclamation it was open to discussion. 
But without discussing that, why could not it have been 
adjusted without committing an act of hostility ? Merely 
because Spain was then unequal to quell the rebellious 
band of desperadoes known by the contemptuous appella- 
tion of land-jobbers ! Mr. Morier did not mince words, 
even if his folks did live in a glass house. And then he 
read this lecture to the American government, striking in 
its sarcasm and unveiled contempt : 

" Would it not have been worthy of the generosity of a 
free nation like this, bearing, as it doubtless does, a respect 
for the rights of a gallant people engaged in a noble 
struggle for liberty, — would it not have been an act on 
the part of this country, dictated by the sacred ties of 
good neighborhood and friendship which exist between it 
and Spain, to have assisted Spain rather than to have 
made such interference the pretext for wresting a province 
from her in the time of her adversity ? " 

Mr. Morier went further, intimating that his govern- 
ment and Spain were allies, and that Great Britain could 
not see with indifference any attack upon her interests in 
America. He demanded an explanation. But as the 
United States counted on war with England very soon (it 
came in two years) she did not take the trouble to give 
one. 

However, the outrage was not approved by all Americans. 
The subject split Congress, but more as a political question 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 185 

— for or against the administration. The controversies 
arising from this disgraceful seizure of territory are of 
unusual historical interest, not only because the wrong 
involved was so generally disregarded, but for the fact 
that it aroused the first debates over national expansion, 
and occasioned the first expression of secession sentiment 
heard in either chamber. 

One senator said it was agreed by all parties that we 
ought to have the country which had been taken. They 
differed only as to the mode of acquiring it. The act of 
the Executive was a matter of expediency. If we did not 
take possession and give the people the protection of the 
American government, and if they had sought it of a 
foreign power, he (the President) would have been charged 
with fear and imbecility. And then, considering it as an 
emergency, the honorable senator asked : " Are we to sit 
here and cavil about questions of right ? " 

An anti-administration senator declared the proclama- 
tion was a declaration of war, and an act of legislation 
also, — it annexed territory in dispute, created a Governor, 
enacted laws, and appropriated money. It seemed to him 
as if President Madison had n''t left anything for Congress 
to do. Besides, what had Spain done to provoke this act 
of aggression ? Was it that she had lately sent a minister 
to express her friendly disposition to treat with us for both 
the Floridas, and to pay what she owed us for spoliations .? 
. . . Why should we depart from the great system of 



186 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

conduct which had been the pride, the safety, and the 
boast of our country, of faith, of justice, of peace ? — and 
much more in the same strain. But the President was 
sustained in the Senate by a large majority. The acts of 
the buccaneers were hardly once condemned, or mentioned 
with disapproval, — only the act of the Executive in tak- 
ing advantage of it. 

In the House the debate ran higher ; but the matter of 
forcible seizure by land-robbers was entirely lost in the 
fog of discussion of constitutional questions involving the 
authority of the United States ever to extend her terri- 
tory, or to add new States to the original thirteen. The 
opposition was led by Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, 
who was in those days engaged in the continuous perform- 
ance of leading the little band of Federalists against the 
administration strongholds. His utterances make strange 
reading for an American citizen of to-day. Little did 
Kemper dream, when he started out after the blood and 
possessions of the Spaniards, that his acts would lead to 
such heights of controversy over constitutional limitations. 

It was pointed out that the President declared to the 
world that title to the district involved should be subject 
to adjustment by mutual arrangement hereafter to be 
entered into between the United States and Spain, while 
the bill before Congress provided for annexation of the 
district to the State which it was proposed to form out of 
the lower part of the Territory of Louisiana. What 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 187 

power had the government to negotiate about the territory 
of any one of the States ? None ! 

Still the great moral question did not come up. The 
senator who asked if they were to cavil about mere ques- 
tions of right, in the face of expediency, need not have 
disturbed himself. Nobody in the Congress of liberty- 
loving America took the trouble to do so. The wrangle 
— and a memorable one it was — raged only over consti- 
tutional authority and restrictions. Mr. Quincy, who all 
his life posed on a moral pedestal, had not a word to say 
against freebooting, or murder, or the driving of a friendly 
people from their homes. His argument was that of the 
narrowest of political provincials, and no anti-expansionist 
of Massachusetts or elsewhere of later days has equalled 
him in uncompromising opposition to national growth. 

It must be remembered that the debate had now turned 
on the question of admitting a new State — Louisiana. 
The proposition to add a State to the Union — to increase 
the original family of thirteen by a single addition — filled 
Mr. Quincy with distress. The principle of the bill — 
admitting new territory — appeared to him, he said, to 
justify a revolution in the land ! It affected the liberties 
and rights of the whole people of the United States — 
that is, the original thirteen. He was almost tempted to 
leave, without a struggle, his country to its fate ! 

While it is not the purpose here to follow the debate, 
the quotation of some of the remarks of the principals 



188 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

who engaged in it, pro and con, on the particular subject, 
cannot be much of a digression from the story. 

Mr. Quincy continued to deny any right under the Con- 
stitution to extend the original limits of the United States 
by the admission of States. To attempt to do so, he de- 
clared, was an atrocious and manifest usurpation of power 
by the three branches of the government. The Constitu- 
tion was a political compact between thirteen States. No 
more could be admitted without shattering the instrument. 
To admit a new State would dissolve the Union! '^ For 
then the States that compose it will be free from their moral 
obligations, and that, as it xoill be the right of all, so it will 
be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, 
amicably f they can, violently if they nuist ! " 

The future president of Harvard University struck the 
limit of secession doctrine, — that it would be the duty of 
some States to secede if Congress should pass a bill adding 
a foot of ground to the original territory. Four States 
had already been added to the original thirteen since the 
adoption of the Constitution, but they had been carved 
out of the ten'itory held at that time. This, the proposed 
admission of Louisiana out of a purchased province, was 
the first move toward the extension of the national domain 
in the statehood. Mr. Quincy's violent words were not 
the unguarded utterance of passion. Upon objection 
being made, he wrote them down and sent them to the 
desk, so there would be no misunderstanding. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 189 

Did Josiah Quincy believe that the act should dissolve 
the Union ? The explanation of his monstrous sentiments, 
based on such a construction of the Constitution, probably 
lies in the fact that the people of his State and of New 
England were then in bitter opposition to the embargo 
laid on their maritime commerce by the President, and 
that many of them were talking about withdrawing from 
the Union because of the hardship it imposed on those 
States. That Representative Quincy was looking forward 
to secession, and thus grasped this occasion to raise an- 
other and a more dignified justification than an embargo 
for the course he believed his constituents might take, is a 
supposition that, however damaging to his patriotism, 
does less violence to his intelligence than the absurd doc- 
trine concerning the Constitution which he professed to 
hold. 

It seems a strange paradox, in the light of history that 
has since been made, that the member to call Mr. Quincy 
to order for his seditious utterances was from Mississippi. 
Mr. Poindexter earnestly declared it was radically wrong 
for any member to use arguments to dissolve the govern- 
ment, and questioned the right of a member to invite any 
portion of the people to insurrection and a dissolution of 
the Union. 

The speaker ruled the treasonable utterances contrary 
to the order of debate, but Mr. Quincy appealed to the 
House, which (probably wanting to hear to what lengths 



190 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the New Englander would go) reversed the decision. A 
long controversy ensued, in which Mr. Quincy declared the 
people of New Orleans and of Louisiana never had been 
citizens of the United States, and by the mode proposed, 
never would be. He indulged in a good deal of other talk 
which sounds so utterly foolish now as to make it seem 
uncharitable to quote it against him. He appeared to 
fear the development of the West, as many narrow- 
visioned residents of the Atlantic States did at that 
time. 

"Why," he exclaimed in his oratorical spasm against 
the Louisiana bill, "are we to have representatives of a 
people fifteen hundred miles away legislating here for 
Massachusetts ? Are savages along the banks of the Mis- 
sissippi to be given a voice in our government?" 

Mr. Poindexter taunted Mr. Quincy about a declaration 
that the latter had made in a previous debate, to the 
effect that the people of New England were prepared for 
insurrection and revolt unless the embargo was repealed ; 
adding that the British minister to the United States had 
reported that utterance made on the floor of the House, 
and had informed his government that the dissolution of 
the Union was a probable event. 

The bill passed by a large majority. 

The District under dispute, which the Spaniards called 
Baton Rouge, and which Kemper and his fellow-buccaneers 
called, after their seizure of it. West Florida, was that 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 191 

block of land lying between the Mississippi River, the 
State of Mississippi, and the Gulf of Mexico. Out of it 
subsequently were carved the parishes of East Baton 
Rouge, St. Helena, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, St. 
Tammany, Tangipahoa, Livingston, and Washington. 



CHAPTER IX 



The Magee Expedition — Soldier and Filibuster — Glory Leads toward 
Mexico — The " Republican Army of the North " — Success of the 
Invaders — Strange Death of the Leader. 

UGUSTUS MA- 
GEE, lieutenant in 
the United States 
army, set on foot 
the next enterprise 
for the conquest of 
Texas. 

In 1811 there was 
a scandalous state of 
affairs on the Texas- 
Louisiana border. 
It will be remem- 
bered that in 1806 
the Spaniards un- 
der Herrera and the 
Americans under Wilkinson were all but in collision over 
the boundary line ; and that, owing to Wilkinson's desire to 
get away to betray his friend Burr, he patched up a pecu- 
liar peace with his antagonist whereby a " neutral ground " 
was established. This was a strip of wild country between 




THE GLORY SEEKERS 193 

the Sabine River and the An-ondo Hoyo. The agreement 
was that so long as both countries claimed it neither 
should have it, at least for a while. After other things 
were out of the way, the two nations might come together 
and settle this difference, but in the meantime the neutral 
ground was to remain a wilderness. 

It was a foolish proposition ; but it will not be forgotten 
that a brief quarter-century before it had been the avowed 
policy of Spain to keep Louisiana a wilderness as a safe- 
guard to Texas and Mexico. And just a year before 
Wilkinson's treaty our commissioners at Madrid, Monroe 
and Pinckney, proposed to the Spanish government that 
the two nations establish a territory comprising thirty 
leagues on both sides of the Colorado River which should 
remain unsettled forever. This was on the theory that, 
with such a dead strip between the two provinces, there 
would be no border difficulties, — no clothesline quarrels 
to be settled in the national police courts. 

But Spain would not accept the proposal, and therein 
showed her good sense. For the temporary neutral ground 
as established by the commanders in the field soon became 
a paradise for the lawless. Highwaymen, murderers, horse- 
thieves, and brigands of the most desperate and degraded 
type made the land their retreat. As it belonged to nobody 
now they were comparatively safe from arrest. What 
made the matter worse, it may be, Spain had interrupted 
diplomatic relations with the United States from 1808 to 

13 



194. THE GLORY SEEKERS 

1815. Napoleon had practically blotted her out for a 
time. At last the Sabine River was agreed upon as the 
boundary, and the treaty confirming it was signed Feb. 
21, 1819. 

But in the meantime there was trouble on the border. 
It was about as much as a trader's life was worth to at- 
tempt to pass it with any valuables. It got so bad that 
traders from Mexico, on reaching the west bank of the 
Sabine, would sometimes send for a military escort to con- 
duct them to Natchitoches. This duty fell to Lieutenant 
Magee. 

The story of Augustus Magee is different from that of 
all the other fame-seekers by conquest in the early South- 
west; and although it is devoid of any romance of the 
heart, so far as known, it excites a deeply pathetic interest. 
The very fact that his brief life in the wilds, with an en- 
vironment more befitting a corsair than a man of culture, 
was unsoftened and uncheered by woman's love when the 
star of his rash ambition waned, makes his career the more 
regrettable. 

He was bom in Massachusetts, and was of good family. 
About all that the histories tell of his early life is that he 
entered West Point, and was graduated in January, 1809. 
Receiving an appointment as second lieutenant of artillery, 
he was ordered to Louisiana, where Wilkinson still had 
command. It is a striking fact that every adventurer 
who, during a quarter of a century or more, entered upon 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 195 

daring aggressions against the Spanish possessions, had 
been under that man's evil influence. For a while Lieu- 
tenant Magee was stationed at New Orleans. After some 
two years of somewhat inactive army life he was sent by 
Major Wolstoncroft to Natchitoches, the most westerly 
army post of the region. 

Magee's principal duty here was, as already indicated, 
the protection of travellers from the cutthroats of the 
neutral ground, near the eastern border of which his post 
was situated. It was merely border police duty, of a very 
uninteresting sort to an ambitious young soldier. A re- 
port of some deviltry would be received, and away he 
would go with a squad of troopers and chase about in an 
execrable desert for the depredators — whom he seldom 
could catch. Then he would go back to the isolated little 
fort and loll the hours away till the next call on him was 
made. As a matter of fact, it was doubtful whether, 
under the treaty agreement, he had any right to enter the 
sequestered district and arrest anybody. 

Once in a while he would catch some of the brigands, 
and then he did not waste time reading up laws and regu- 
lations to ascertain just how far he was authorized to go 
in the matter of chastisement. Extremes were good 
enough for such as he dealt with. This is illustrated by 
the happenings when he w^ent across to Salitre on the 
Texas side, to meet and escort a company of Mexican 
traders through the robbers' kingdom to Natchitoches. 



196 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

The roads were mere traces, and most of the traffic of that 
and previous times being of a contraband nature, these 
were called " contraband traces." Many of the highway- 
men had established themselves in the bad lands as 
"squatters," with their families, ostensibly for hunting 
and small farming. All marauded alike on the Americans 
and Mexicans who came their way, although their affec- 
tions inclined more to the latter, as they were usually 
better supplied with specie, and also because they could, 
as a rule, be robbed with greater impunity. A peculiar 
illustration of the fascination of lucre — the desire to pos- 
sess the thing itself! One would have supposed that, 
living in that dreary country without commerce or pro- 
duction, the capture of a load of provisions or other 
supplies, which usually come as godsends to remote habi- 
tations, would have been the most desirable booty; but 
no, the rascals preferred the silver, although it is difficult 
to understand what good they could get out of it in their 
situation. 

On the occasion noted, young Magee met the Mexican 
train, which had an unusual quantity of silver, and was 
especially desirous of protection. All went safely under 
convoy of the lieutenant until they reached the small 
streamlet of La Nan. This was pretty well over toward 
the American side, and not so very far from Natchitoches. 
Here a gang of thirteen of the robbers, no doubt having 
full information concerning the trading party, sprang from 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 197 

an ambuscade on both sides of the road, completely sur- 
prising the party. 

Magee and his men were slightly in advance, and were 
just starting to cross the stream, which here made a sharp 
bend. It was an ideal place for such an attack. The 
banditti fired fz'om the cover of the thickets, and several 
of the small caravan were killed. Magee and the troop 
being now across the rivulet, saw their charge, the unfor- 
tunate traders, suri'ounded. A fight ensued, but the sit- 
uation was such that the soldiers were as likely to kill the 
travellers by their fire, as they were the outlaws. It is sus- 
pected, too, that Magee's men did not behave with the 
valor expected of them, and from the accounts it would 
seem that the lieutenant himself was censurable on the 
charge of carelessness, although nothing of the sort is 
hinted at in the histories. 

The Mexicans were captured, the outlaws getting the 
better of the debate, and Magee, finding himself out- 
classed, retreated in hot speed to his post. Here he 
secured a larger force, and the following day went back 
after the desperadoes. In the meantime the traders had 
been despoiled of both silver and goods. Having got 
their booty, the brigands took the silver and buried it for 
present safety — there being a considerable quantity of 
it — along the bank of the river. The details of this 
deposit were attended to, for business reasons, by the two 
leaders of the gang, while the others were guarding the 



198 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

prisoners and mules. Then the Mexicans — those who 
survived — were sent back homeward, and the robbers dis- 
persed themselves, suspicious of what might be coming. 

By this time brigandage had thriven so well, and so 
many had entered the godless field of plunder, that a sort 
of organization, or union, had been effected to keep the 
industry within desirable restrictions. They had head- 
quarters (somewhat elusive, to be sure), outposts, and cap- 
tains. Magee had learned all this. He knew what he 
had to contend with, but he was determined to inflict 
punishment on some of the criminals. He made a sweep 
through their domain of deviltry, burnt some of their 
houses and caught some of their horses, but for a time 
failed to capture any of his former assailants. Finally, 
he overtook the two chiefs. The brazen rascals had actu- 
ally started by a roundabout trace for Natchitoches to 
dispose of such of the merchandise as they did not want 
for their own use; counting, apparently, on not being 
recognized, and posing as reputable dealers. 

But the lieutenant was not to be fooled. He proceeded 
summarily by having them tied to trees and flogged to 
make them disclose the whereabouts of their associates, 
who Magee supposed must have the silver. In spite of 
severe lashing the captives would reveal nothing ; and then 
the lieutenant tried another method of persuasion. He 
had coals of fire passed up and down their naked and 
lacerated backs — something like a free operation of the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 199 

moxa. Whether or not live coals on the spine can add 
anything to the discomfort of a man who has just received 
a hundred whistling lashes, the recipients of the treatment 
still refused to divulge anything, either about their com- 
rades or the spelter. And Lieutenant Magee, being weary 
by that time, took the wretches along to Natchitoches and 
turned them over to the civil authorities for punishment. 

The guilty ones were tried forthwith and as promptly 
convicted, each being sentenced to ten years' imprison- 
ment. It is remarkable, considering the circumstances 
and the time, that they should have escaped the death 
penalty ; and there is some cause to suspect that it was 
owing to the severe torture they had undergone at the 
hands of the military. They were serving their sentence 
when the second war with Great Britain came on; and 
late in 1813, when the British were menacing New Orleans, 
and every effort was being made to raise troops hastily for 
the defence — it took time in those days to move regi- 
ments long distances — they were offered a pardon if they 
would enlist in the service. One of the convicts readily 
agreed, and was one of the heroes who overcame the 
British on the memorable eighth of January. 

The other fellow stubbornly refused the pardon proposi- 
tion, having other projects in his head. He served his 
time out, and then entered upon a business career of a less 
dangerous kind than his former one. 

The robbers who attacked Magee, and who escaped 



200 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

him, returned in due time to the scene of their successful 
action to make search for the hidden silver. Circum- 
stances not subject to their control forbidding them from 
communicating with their former chiefs, they were forced 
to conduct their quest at haphazard. They might 
almost as well have been blindfolded. They went up and 
down La Nan Creek from the curve which they remem- 
bered well as the exact spot where the affray took place. 
They inspected every foot of the banks, both sides, bur- 
rowed in all the inaccessible crannies, and dug the gravelly 
places in the stream. They searched deep and shallow, 
did those hopeful brigands, tried the witch hazel and other 
conjuring, but never the chink of a good dollar did they 
hear, and not a coin did they find. 

However, the ex-convict, after his time was out, re- 
membered well enough. Immediately upon regaining his 
liberty he went and dug up the whole treasure bright 
and clean. With it he went over to Georgia and entered 
the slave-driving business. Buying a band of blacks, he 
would chain them in a gang, drive them to where the de- 
mand made higher prices, and sell at a profit. After a 
few deals of this kind he bought a lot and took them to 
Texas. The chronicle relates that, having entered legiti- 
mate pursuits, he likewise reformed his manners, and be- 
came a reputable citizen. Being among the first colonists 
in the land of his former exploits (now reduced to greater 
security) he established himself as a planter, lived as a real 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 201 

gentleman of the slave-holding class, and died a few years 
before the Texas revolution, much lamented by the aristoc- 
racy of his section. To be sure, there was now and then 
a whisper, — but for that, there are gentlemen even to-day 
with records that are dim. 

Magee at this time was only about twenty-four years 
old, yet one of the Texas historians speaks of him as " a 
leader of tried fidelity and valor," and says that he ulti- 
mately thrashed the outlaws till they sued for pardon and 
promised better conduct in the future. Even so, the hum- 
drum occupation of disciplining a nestful of border rob- 
bers, and then sitting around in the shade of a mud fort 
waiting till another mule was stolen, was not his idea of 
winning distinction. 

He is credited in the books with having been " a man of 
more than ordinary accomplishments." It is altogether 
probable that he was conversant With the events of his 
day. An ambitious young soldier, he no doubt was influ- 
enced, as were thousands of others in all parts of the 
world, by the blaze of Napoleon's glory, — that lonesome 
genius being just then at the very zenith of his greatness. 
He had heard, from his boyhood, stories of the schemes of 
conquest of Genet. He had learned what the real objects 
of Wilkinson and of Burr were. There still was Texas, 
and beyond, chaotic Mexico. There was already arising 
a clamor for entrance upon the fertile lands of the vast 
province which he was now serving at the threshold. Of 



202 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the mighty possibilities of the future he dreamed on idle 
days at the frontier post. 

Magee was set dreaming by something more potent 
than the rich red poppies in the gardens of the Southwest. 
And in this mood he became acquainted with Bernardo 
Gutierrez, a former colonel in the Mexican insurgent army 
of the gallant Hidalgo. This man had, after the defeat 
of Hidalgo, sought asylum and assistance in the United 
States. The asylum he found was broad, the assistance 
meagre. Americans, themselves not yet opulent, had 
wearied of lending aid to patriots who had fled from 
Mexico and South America. There had been something 
too much of it. So Gutierrez was keeping out of the 
clutches of Spain, and doing the next best thing he 
could. 

Whatever scheme Magee had been revolving in his mind 
was no doubt hurried to definite formation by his associa- 
tion with Bernardo. At any rate, it was but a short time 
before the Mexican was announcing a plan for the invasion 
of Texas. Proposals were published for raising the " Army 
of the North." It was in the name of the Mexican, but 
everybody knew that young Lieutenant Magee was the 
power and influence behind it. Now transpires a strange 
part of the business. Magee made a tour through the 
neutral grounds, saw the leaders of the freebooters and 
knights of the contraband traces, notified them of the 
expedition of conquest which he was organizing, and 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 203 

invited them and their fellows to join it. Scores of 
them did so. In fact, it appears from some accounts 
that this select body of banditti was the nucleus of his 
organization. 

But recruiting began also in Louisiana, and among the 
few advance settlers who had stolen into Texas and who 
were fearful of the insecure conditions. They had confi- 
dence in the country, and believed it ought to be wrested 
from Spanish rule ; were enthused over Magee"'s glittering 
forecast — a separate nation, sudden development of wealth 
and power, and the possibilities of turning the Spaniards 
out of Mexico ! It was the old prospect, and appealed to 
many besides the desperate. There was the well-to-do 
Davenport and his partner, Barr, ranchmen who had 
stores at Angelina. Davenport became chief commissary 
of the expedition, and influenced other men of means to 
subscribe to the fund for it. Magee, early in the move- 
ment, went to New Orleans and enlisted a number of young 
men, mostly dare-devil fellows who could be easily induced 
into any kind of adventure. Whether he had secured 
leave of absence for this journey of several hundred miles 
cannot be ascertained from any of the published records 
concerning him ; but it is certain that he yet held his 
commission. The question presents itself as to the possi- 
bility of his superior officers having knowledge at this 
time of his acts and intentions. It is not a rash presump- 
tion that one or more of them must ihave had, yet it is 



204 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

not borne out by the evidence, any further than that 
Magee had previously come in contact with General 
Wilkinson. 

In the proposal for troops, pay at the rate of forty dol- 
lars per month was offered, besides which each volunteer 
was to be given a league of land — nearly six thousand 
acres — in the new Dominion. This was several times 
more liberal than the allurements set forth in the Genet 
proposals. And if, in considering the purpose of the 
would-be conqueror to establish a landed aristocracy, it is 
urged that he was starting with a base lot of followers on 
whom to bestow such rewards, it may be remembered that 
aristocracies have been established on foundations of simi- 
lar material. 

Volunteers were notified to rally at the Saline, east of 
the Sabine River, on June 12. On the date set, one hun- 
dred and fifty-eight men came together, of whom it is said 
a majority were from the " neutral ground."" That the 
main expectation of these willing ruffians was to enjoy 
plundering upon a more liberal scale without so much 
danger of being punished for it, did not detract from their 
usefulness in the eyes of Magee and Gutierrez. They 
were hardy, fearless, and well armed. And it is much 
credit to young Magee"'s resoluteness that they were 
brought to submit to military discipline. An organiza- 
tion was effected, and drilling began. By the time the 
expedition was ready to move, the " Republican Army of 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 205 

the North" had been increased to about three hundred 
men in the ranks. 

In this rather motley army there were a number of men of 
recognized respectabihty, notably Doctor Forsyth, of Mis- 
sissippi, and Captain Ross from the same State ; Captain 
McKim, who wrote an account of the expedition, never 
published ; Captain Perry, from New Orleans, who is re- 
ported to have been related to the famous sea-fighters of 
that name; Captain Joseph Taylor, and Colonel Daven- 
port, already mentioned ; and there was also Reuben 
Kemper, of Baton Rouge notoriety, posing as the most 
desperate hater of " Spanish tyranny " in America. It 
was, of course, the ostensible object of the army to cooperate 
with and assist the revolutionary patriots in Mexico, but 
in reality it was the conquest of Texas, and after that to 
decide, in accordance with their strength and resources, as 
to what should be done about Mexico. 

For the purpose of lending the color of legitimacy to 
the movement, and to win the submission of the republican 
sympathizers in Texas, Gutierrez was made the nominal 
commander, with the title of general. Magee was next in 
authority, with the rank of colonel, and was in reality the 
man who issued the directions. It was arranged for him 
to remain awhile at Natchitoches and attend to the for- 
warding of supplies, while Gutierrez was to fight his way 
as far as Spanish Bluffs, on the Trinity River, and there 
await further orders. 



206 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Bernardo Gutierrez was an impressive talker against 
oppression and in glorification of the blessings of liberty. 
But when it came to action in the tented field, he was not 
a typical revolutionary terror. He was stout, fond of his 
ease, and fonder still of good eating and drinking ; which 
qualities in him should not be lost sight of in estimating 
the credit for the army's achievements, or the blame for 
its reverses. 

The first engagement occurred at Salitre Prairie. Here 
they encountered an inferior force of Spanish regulars, 
which, however, consisted mainly of Mexican half-breeds, 
or Indians. The defenders were worsted and scattered, 
leaving a number dead, although their exact loss is not 
given. The conquerors lost two killed and three wounded, 
but were elated with their victory. It augured the success 
of their enterprise ; and a despatch was immediately sent 
to Magee giving him the details of the encounter. 

The defeated Spaniards fled to Nacogdoches and began 
the construction of fortifications overlooking the hamlet, 
the principal material used being bales of wool, which were 
intended for the New Orleans market. But the invaders, 
flushed with their initial success, were quick after them, 
and their coming sent such terror into the hearts of the 
Spaniards that, although in a protected position, they 
fled before a round had been fired at them. Evidently 
the American conquerors had an intimidating way. The 
royalists retreated through the town, and such impetus 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 207 

had the sight of the enemy given them, that they did not 
halt till they arrived at Spanish Bluffs. 

The conquerors had already made a valuable capture. 
They took all the wool at this place and sent it to Magee 
at Natchitoches, where it was sold, and the proceeds used 
in the purchase of army supplies. Then the army con- 
tinued on its march after the retreating enemy. Things 
were coming easy. Besides the start the wool gave them. 
Colonel Davenport, who had not been idle, although not 
yet with the army, sent forward twenty mule-loads of flour, 
bacon, salt, and other provender, including forty bushels 
of commeal. Some of these supplies came from New 
Orleans, where the colonel operated, and where the scheme 
of conquest was aided and abetted. 

On June 22, some months after he had engaged in his 
grand enterprise. Lieutenant Magee resigned his commis- 
sion in the United States army. He had defeiTed this 
until the feasibility of the expedition seemed assured ; but 
now he could see the future empire surely widening before 
him. He now set out with a few recruits that he had 
enlisted to join his army at Spanish Bluffs. He was 
something of a soldier. At the crossing of the Sabine 
he left behind him Captain Joseph Gaines to forward such 
additional volunteers as might be secured, and keep 
a communication open with Natchitoches and his own 
country. 

When the invading army reached Spanish Bluffs they 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

found the old fort — a mere adobe fortification — occupied 
by about four hundred of the enemj. These all fled at 
the approach of the conquerors, as they had done at 
Nacogdoches. A considerable quantity of stores and am- 
munition thus fell into the hands of the Americans, who 
now began to feel themselves invincible. They welcomed 
the young chief, Magee, vociferously. Everybody was in 
"high feather and feed.*" The ex-highwaymen had for- 
gotten their prejudice against the ex-lieutenant, and they 
were all happy conquerors together. 

The army remained in this pleasant situation one month. 
In the meantime something was in the air across the plains. 
The Governor of Texas, Don Manuel de Salcedo, — 
brother to him who put a sudden stop to Nolan's raid, — 
together with the aid of ex-Governor Cordero and Don 
Simon Herrera, Governor of New Leon, loyal royalists all, 
with something of a knack at warfare, were collecting a 
royalist force and fortifying La Bahia and San Antonio. 
The civil war in Mexico had not terminated with the 
shooting of Hidalgo. Morelos, another patriot priest, 
had, as we have seen, raised the standard of independence 
in the Southern provinces, aided by a rancorous American, 
Bean. At the same time Victoria, another rebel, was 
worrying the Viceroy with an insurrection of his own near 
Jalapa. The republicans still had an organization and a 
junta. Calleja, the Alva of Mexico, had butchered and 
applied the torch wherever independence and liberty had 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 209 

been advocated, and had besieged Morelos at Quatte 
Amilpas, seventy-five miles from Mexico City. 

So it is seen that the royalist government of Mexico 
was not in need of going away from home for excitement, 
and that Magee had chosen an opportune time to strike 
for Texas. His first successes fired the adventurous 
heart all through the Southwest, and before he left 
Spanish Bluffs his army had increased to about eight 
hundred. It was here that Kemper joined him with 
a company, and was commissioned a major. Finally he 
left the Bluffs, marched westward, and crossed the Colo- 
rado River. On the route his scouts captured several 
Spanish spies, from whom he learned that Salcedo was 
in command at La Bahia with fourteen hundred troops, 
and that it was his hope to ambush the Americans 
when they attempted to cross the Guadalupe. Now, 
that being true, and Salcedo coming down the river to 
set a trap, it was likely that La Bahia would be left in 
a weak condition. 

So the wily American declined to go by the way where 
the ambush was placed for him, but marched his army 
rapidly by a circuitous route and came down on La Bahia 
from an unexpected direction. The place was found de- 
fended by only one hundred and sixty men, and they, being 
so greatly overpowered, soon surrendered. Here the " Re- 
publican Army of the North '' found itself in command of 
the largest magazine of stores, including ammunition, in 

14 



210 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Texas, and, what was even more to the joy of the troops, 
of the enemy's military chest. 

Besides all this, they captured sixteen pieces of artillery 
of all calibres, among them being several of historic inter- 
est. They were those brought by La Salle to San Ber- 
nardo in 1685. The money in the chest enabled the 
commanders to pay the volunteers all back dues. It now 
looked exceedingly promising for the conquerors. They 
had reached the heart of Texas without a reverse or even 
a serious engagement. The enemy had been beaten and 
outwitted. It was true they had not yet met the real army 
of defence, and that the Governor was near by with a su- 
perior force, according to reports ; but they were in posses- 
sion of his principal stores and artillery, and the loss of his 
cash would no doubt embarrass him seriously. Surely 
nothing more satisfactory could have been hoped for by 
Colonel Magee in his fondest dreams. 

Yet already there was suspicion that all was not perfectly 
healthy and harmonious in the much-officered army. It is 
difficult to say just what. Not unlikely it was partly the 
conflict of authority between Gutierrez and Magee. The 
Mexican exile was growing overbearing. He had little 
military skill ; his training as a soldier had been of the 
bushwhacking kind. On the other hand, Magee had been 
educated in the principal military academy on the conti- 
nent, and had had two or three years' practical experience 
under capable leaders. And besides, the expedition being 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 211 

a thing of his own creation, it is not to be marvelled at 
that he was firm in asserting himself. 

Gutierrez began to cultivate exclusiveness. He kept 
in his tent much of the time, and had special attention 
given to the meals prepared for him. It is not remark- 
able that the troops, contemplating the character of many 
of them, should have inclined more to favor the easy 
authority of such a leader than the severe discipline 
insisted upon by Magee. Perhaps they were becoming a 
trifle spoiled by prosperity. Every man had money in 
his pocket, and was bountifully fed. Such things, and 
not enough hard fighting, are apt to prove harmful to 
an army. But they were soon to have business more 
strenuous. 

Salcedo, being now in narrow straits, had to do his 
fighting quickly if he did it at all. He attacked the fort 
with his full strength. The conquerors sallied out and 
drove him back, meeting with slight loss. The Governor 
then divided his force into four divisions, placing one on 
each bank of the San Antonio River above and below the 
fort, and then sat down to a siege. The Americans erected 
bastions of earth upon which they mounted the guns found 
in the fort, and also three six-pounders which they brought 
with them. Salcedo had fourteen guns, but mostly light 
field-pieces. 

The siege lasted three or four weeks, during which time 
there was almost continuous desultory fighting, and two 



212 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

general assaults. Then an unaccountable thing occurred. 
An armistice for three days was agreed to. 

It is almost certain that the full and true history of this 
enterprise, after the march from Spanish Bluffs, has never 
been written ; and considering the lapse of nearly a cen- 
tury, and the large number of those who have delved into 
the subject, it is hardly to be expected that it ever will be. 
There was some internal dissension in the army of invasion 
that has not been explained. Several things may be im- 
agined, but it is idle to guess. The accepted record shows 
that Magee visited the royalist Governor and commander 
of the troops opposed to him, and dined with him at his 
headquarters. During the three days of the armistice the 
two leaders were in friendly communication ; and then it 
was announced that they had entered into an agreement. 

Such an agreement as Magee reported to his army seems 
preposterous. It is mystifying. He had made a compact 
with Salcedo to withdraw the " Republican Army of the 
North," to deliver the fort of La Bahia back into his 
hands, and to march his army out without arms ! For 
this it was stipulated that the invaders should be permitted 
to return home, unarmed, of course ; that they would not 
be molested, and that the Governor would provide them 
witli provisions on the way ! 

It is not beyond reason to suspect that Magee may have 
become mentally dei-anged. He had the courage to parade 
his troops, when he made known to them the terms of the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 213 

disgraceful agreement. The men were not without a sus- 
picion of something unfavorable, but they were not pre- 
pared for this. The ranks stood as if petrified. When the 
Colonel had finished his announcement he asked all those 
who approved his act to shoulder arms. Then their anger 
burst forth in mutterings and imprecations. Every man 
of them resentfully stamped the butt of his gun on the 
ground, — not a rifle went to the shoulder. Majors and 
captains joined their curses of protest, — and Gutierrez was 
lounging idly at his headquarters. 

Consternation followed confusion, and well it might. 
Magee, apparently confounded, went to his tent, leaving 
the troops on parade. Kemper blustered about, and then 
went for Gutierrez. He found him dining like a gour- 
mand. The Mississippian found it hard to make him real- 
ize the serious danger of the situation. Late in the 
afternoon Salcedo sent a note under a white flag addressed 
to Magee, reminding him that it was the third and last day 
of the armistice ; that he expected the American to re- 
deem his word of honor and evacuate the fort. 

The note w^as taken to Gutierrez without notification to 
Magee. The General read it, grunted a few commonplaces, 
and sent it back by the flag without an answer. Salcedo 
was furious, naturally enough. Immediately he made a 
fierce attack from all sides, took the town, and advanced 
threateningly to the walls of the fort. Kemper, who had 
been advanced to the active command, is reported to 



214 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

have put up a good fight. The Americans were at first 
thrown into much disorder by the warmth of the attack. 
He re-formed them, salhed out . at their head, made a 
charge upon the Spaniards, and routed them handsomely. 
He chased them till darkness fell, and killed and wounded 
two hundred of them. The invaders' loss was very light, 
the number not being reported. 

During this stirring engagement Augustus Magee re- 
mained in his tent', in what state of mental anguish can 
only be inferred from the deed that followed soon. At 
twelve o'clock that night he shot himself and died ! 



CHAPTER X 



The Invaders Aggressive — Battle of Rosalis — Gachupins badly De- 
feated — Victorious Army becomes Demoralized — Viceroy^s Forces 
Annihilate it. 

ND SO the daring 
young West Point- 
er's star of destiny, 
which for a brief 
period appeared in 
a refulgent glow, 
suddenly set in dark- 
ness and mystery. 
One might have ex- 
pected, in following 
the story of his haz- 
ard, that when he 
found himself repu- 
diated and his ac- 
tion spurned, and 
saw his troops fly at the enemy, he would have sprung to 
the front and sought death in the charge. Nothing in his 
life so discredited him as the circumstances of his leaving 
it. He seems to have died unlamented by all those whom 
he had rallied to the enterprise. 




216 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

There was so much of rajstery in his taking off that one 
of the earliest chroniclers of the campaign, instead of in- 
vestigating the matter exhaustively, adopted an easy solu- 
tion by attributing his death to quick consumption. And 
this silly explanation has been quoted without question 
by a number of subsequent compilers. Mr. Yoakum, 
whose history of Texas deserves precedence over all others 
for the period it covers, states that the young adventurer 
died by his own hand, and regretted he had not further 
testimony concerning the tragedy. It is not an important 
event in history, the passing of one rash glory chaser. But 
on his attempt hinged great things for Texas, and the 
swath he cut when he first entered her plains presaged suc- 
cess. With harmony in his camp — his eight hundred en- 
thusiastic as one — it is not improbable that he would have 
shaped events in the far Southwest in a different course 
from that they subsequently took. 

There is nothing in the accounts of Magee's life up to 
this venture that indicates his affliction with any danger- 
ous malady. His undertaking was not that of a man on 
the verge of the grave with tuberculosis. It is preposter- 
ous to assume that it might have developed during the two 
or three months of the campaign, in that climate, and in 
the Autumn. It is most likely that his fatal pistol shot 
was the result of a broken heart. May he not have seen 
that the power he expected to wield through the success 
of the enterprise was likely to be wrested from him by his 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 217 

subordinates and debased from his lofty purposes ? May 
he not have seen, all too late, the wretched mistake he had 
made in resigning his commission in the army he had 
entered with such honorable hopes ? 

His agreement with Salcedo could not have been through 
fear, or because of the fancied helplessness of his position. 
It is probable that his army, in the proper morale, could 
have defeated and scattered the besiegers, just as it did 
defeat and disperse them when their ire was aroused, even 
before Magee's death. There was never an hour that the 
royalists could have stood before a general charge of the 
invaders. The theory of fear is out of consideration. 
And with the testimony now in, there seems to be no ra- 
tional explanation of the strange occun-ence except on the 
assumption of the unfortunate Magee's sudden dementia. 

But although the originator of the expedition was dead, 
the army had a task before it that was to test its mettle. 
After the retreat of Salcedo it marched on San Antonio. 
Its numbers had been increased by several companies, 
directed by Captain Gaines at the Sabine, and now there 
were about twelve hundred men in the Army of the North. 
This included Mexican insurgents who, however, were not 
counted by the Americans as of much efficiency. Kemper 
had the chief command in the field, — Gutierrez was, in 
fact, a figurehead to dupe the natives. 

The conquerors met the Spaniards at Rosalis, a place 
now unidentified a few miles from San Antonio. Salcedo 



218 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

made a vain attempt here to ambush the oncoming enemy. 
That was his favorite mode of warfare. He concealed most 
of his army in a chaparral, but Kemper was too crafty to 
run headlong into the hornets' nest. He sent his contin- 
gent of natives to the fi'ont, but at the first fire from the 
hidden royalists they scampered back. Having located the 
enemy, Kemper now formed his lines under order of battle. 

It is said the Americans carried out the instructions 
with such nerve and coolness that the Spaniards were dis- 
mayed, and fled from their position fairly before the charge 
was made. But they did not escape. The retreat to San 
Antonio developed into a slaughter. The native insurgents 
with the Americans, mainly Indians, now became valiant 
warriors. With the enemy on the run they fell upon him 
and indulged in rank butchery. Few prisoners were taken. 
Salcedo is reported to have lost nearly one thousand of his 
troops. 

This historic battle of Rosalis can hardly be regarded as 
a battle at all. It was a chase, a rout, a killing. It has 
historic value, however, as being the first engagement to 
show the vast superiority as fighters of American troops 
over the Mexican Spaniards. The Americans now had 
deeper contempt than before for the " Gachupins,"' as the 
Texas Spaniards were termed. From this name, engage- 
ments of this campaign are known as the Gachupin 
battles. 

After his disastrous retreat Salcedo reached San Antonio 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 219 

with less than half his army. The Americans surrounded 
him and sent a demand for his surrender. He returned 
no reply. A second flag was sent, this time with what 
amounted to a peremptory order for him to come under safe 
conduct to the American headquarters to arrange terms. 
To this he responded by appearing in the conquerors' 
camp. He first offered his sword to Captain Taylor, who 
referred him with it to Major Kemper. But Kemper had 
enough respect for the nominal commander-in-chief not 
to take it himself, and rather curtly told him to present 
the blade to Gutierrez. But this was too much. The 
Governor refused to surrender in person to a Mexican 
insurrectionary outlaw. He contemptuously stuck his 
sword in the ground before Gutierrez's tent and left it 
there. The luxurious commander had it brought in to 
him — he was not squeamish about how things came. 

The surrender was complete. The Americans occupied 
the town, and took possession of everything — a habit 
they formed when they first entered the province. They 
marched to the since famous Alamo, where they found 
seventeen American prisoners, whom they liberated. 
Besides the prisoners they got a lot of valuable stores 
and ammunition, and ban-els of money. There was so 
much booty in the sack that each happy conqueror 
received, in the general distribution of the spoils, a gra- 
tuity of $15, a suit of clothes, and an order for two horses 
or mules out of the public caballada. As for the Indians, 



220 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

each dark-skinned rascal was given two dollars' worth of 
vermilion, and other presents to the fictitious value of 
$130 — gewgaws were no doubt inventoried high — and 
sent away blessing the Americanos. Such bedecking and 
painting up as there was when they arrived at their various 
homes had never been seen before in Texas. 

Having appropriated all the valuables, the invading 
host set the prisoners at liberty — it was too much trouble 
and expense to feed them. Some of the troops thus re- 
leased, seeing how good it was to be conquerors, joined the 
buccaneers. Others went to their distant homes, begging 
their way as they could. Salcedo and his staff officers 
were paroled. 

General Gutien'ez now began to assume real authority. 
After some days he received a communication which he 
read to the other officers. This advised him that a couple 
of brigs were to sail for Matagorda Bay within a short 
time ; and the General suggested that it w^ould be safer to 
send Salcedo and staff to New Orleans, lest they take Span- 
ish leave and rejoin the royalists in Mexico. Of course, 
there was not much likelihood of this happening ; and 
Kemper, Taylor, and the other American leaders would not 
have cared much if it had. But they complacently ac- 
quiesced in Gutierrez''s desire. 

Under this order Governor Salcedo, ex-Governor Her- 
rera, ex-Governor Cordero, and fifteen other officers were 
assembled and informed of the decision concerning them. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 221 

Gutierrez picked the guard to escort them to the Bay 
from among the native insurgents that were with him, and 
the whole were placed in command of a Captain Delgado. 
This was a villanous-looking fellow, who had distinguished 
himself with slaughtering laggards in the running fight from 
Rosalis. Some of the Americans suspected that something 
devilish was being planned, and it is not to their credit 
that they took no steps to ascertain what it was or to pre- 
vent it. Their suspicions were only too horribly verified. 

Delgado started with his captive chieftains, but at a 
point only one and one-half miles away he halted. That 
was as far as he expected to go. Here he had his pris- 
oners stripped of all their belongings. Then he ordered 
the guard to tie them securely. When this was done the 
wretches set to work and deliberately butchered the help- 
less men by cutting their throats ! 

Now the Americans composing the Army of the North 
were for the most part a pretty well hardened horde of 
invaders, but they would not sanction that. The leaders 
got together in an angry council, and the talk that General 
Gutierrez heard must have made him shiver. He was 
ordered under arrest. To this he objected that it hurt his 
feelings. The creature really seemed astonished that a 
few throat-cuttings like that should create such a swell of 
indignation. They locked him up, caught Delgado, put 
shackles on him, and threw him into prison. Both were 
tried by court-martial, but by that time the anger over 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the dastardly act had somewhat cooled. And perhaps 
there was underground influence set at work. At any 
rate, Delgado made a strong plea of justification, asserting 
that Salcedo had treacherously murdered his father, who 
had been captured after the fall of Hidalgo ; and he was 
acquitted. Gutierrez could not urge any such extenua- 
tion. His justification was general — the crimes the 
victims had committed against liberty. 

But Kemper and his fellows had heard a lot of that be- 
fore, and it did not quite go with them. However, they 
were very lenient. They dismissed Gutierrez in disgrace 
on the counts of treachery and unwonted cruelty. 

The situation now is interesting to the observer who 
figures on what is likely to happen next. Here is an army 
of conquest, victorious and saucy, that has marched tri- 
umphantly into the heart of the country it had set out to 
subjugate. It is greedy, and assumes the privilege of 
license as a foreordained prerogative. Besides, it has had 
demoralizing examples. With the exception of Magee, its 
leaders have not been military men. He was the only one 
who insisted upon proper military organization and disci- 
pline. Kemper and Taylor, and practically all of the 
others, had more the frontier or guerilla idea of warfare. 
A spirit of wild fraternity imbued them. 

The first discord among the leaders had its unfavorable 
effects on the men, and with the death of the only disci- 
plinarian of the staff" all restraint vanished. For Gutierrez 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 223 

no one had any real respect, and his deposition merely had 
the tendency to obliterate respect for any kind of authority. 
It is a striking fact that not a man, either among the cap- 
tains or in the ranks, now exhibited the least comprehen- 
sion of Magee's motive. Texas was, for the time being at 
least, subjugated. The army of defence was annihilated. 
Probably a majority of the inhabitants had submitted, or 
were ready to submit without a protest, to the conquerors. 
And yet no step was taken by the Americans to establish 
themselves. They organized no government. They did 
not seem to care about perpetuating their possession of 
the country. Probably not one among them was equal to 
so much statesmanship. 

They had satisfied their ambition to beat the Spaniards, 
whom they disliked. What sufficed more, they had seized 
all the booty in sight, and, much like a lot of vikings, they 
were ready to rest on their laurels. 

But affairs could not long remain in status quo. The 
troops entered upon unrestrained dissipation. They were 
under pay, and no one could tell where the money was to 
come from to meet the obligations. Seeing the bad state 
of things, Kemper and Ross deserted and returned home. 
Captain Perry succeeded to the principal command, if 
command it could be called. And while gambling and 
drinking and all sorts of license was going on, news came 
that another royalist army was on its way from the 
South. 



224 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Under this stimulus the marauders steadied up for a 
while, but fairly before order had been reestablished, the 
enemy came upon them. To make the situation more 
precarious the natives showed an unfriendly disposition. 
They had been subject to spoliation and outrage, and now 
that a prospect appeared for ridding themselves of the 
foreigners they were ready to assist. They had seen and 
felt quite enough of the blessings of freedom as bestowed 
by the Republican Army of the North. In the face of 
this, and with the hope of placating the republican sym- 
pathizers, or those who had been such, Gutierrez was 
recalled and reinstated in the general command. 

Thereupon the Mexicans and Gachupin allies of the in- 
vaders, about seven hundred strong, organized themselves 
into a separate corps, of which a bold, untamed varlet 
named Manchaco was made colonel, the real command, 
however, being in Major Gaines. The latter had now 
joined the army ; in fact, recruits kept arriving constantly, 
the news of the victories over the royalists having reached 
the Southern States. 

The second royalist army was under command of Gen- 
eral Elisondo. He came with about fifteen hundred reg- 
ulars, besides a considerable auxiliary of volunteers. His 
approach was signalized by the capture of the outpost and 
grand caballada of the conquerors, by which he secured a 
large part of their horses. But that was the extent of 
his victory. He had the fatal habit of delay. Camping 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 225 

a half mile from the town, instead of attacking in the 
flush of his first success he constructed two bastions 
" crowning the summit of a ridge of gentle ascent near the 
river Alizan," behind which his army rested. 

The republican allies marched out before this place late 
one night, rested on their arms till break of day, and then, 
while the enemy was at matins, following the Spanish 
custom, they set upon him like a whirlwind. The second 
army of royalists may have been of better courage than the 
first, but it met almost as severe a defeat. The invaders 
were of a more vigorous race. They were still masters 
of what they had taken, and might even yet have made 
themselves permanently so, if their wisdom had been equal 
to their valor. Elisondo lost in killed about four hun- 
dred, his total loss being near one thousand. The Ameri- 
cans and allies had less than one hundred killed. 

Mexico was now thoroughly alarmed, and the Spanish 
authorities excited to more active efforts to stop the con- 
quest. The viceroy, Venegas, acted with energy. A third 
army was organized and sent to Texas. It was commanded 
by General Arredondo, a soldier who had shown marked 
ability in suppressing insurrection. He was provided with 
some two thousand of the ablest regtilar troops in the 
viceroyalty, besides which he had nearly an equal number 
of volunteers, his total strength being almost four thou- 
sand men. 

At about this time another striking figure appeared 

15 



226 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

among the conquerors. It was General Jose Alvarez 
Toledo, a native of Cuba, of a distinguished family, but 
an exile because of his revolutionary " feeling," For some 
time he had been in New Orleans raising recruits and se- 
curing supplies for the " army of liberation." He arrived 
at San Antonio late in July, 1813. Gutierrez having again 
been dismissed, the leaders fearing his treachery, Toledo 
was elected to the chief command. He was a man of 
higher character and more ability than his predecessor. 

Hardly had Toledo become generalissimo when the roy- 
alist legion under Arredondo approached. Toledo ad- 
vanced to meet him with about eight hundred and fifty 
Americans under Perry and Taylor, and about fifteen 
hundred Mexicans, or Gachupins, under command of 
Manchaco. It is reported that the latter was jealous of 
the Cuban, and resented his being given the supreme 
command. There was blood on the banners of the allies 
when they formed for battle that day, and good fortune 
deserted the American conquerors. Enervated by con- 
tinued excesses, and grown rash with easy victories, they 
went into the engagement reckless of the authority of 
the commander. 

Manchaco started the disaster. He occupied the left 
position and, against Toledo's orders, it is declared, ad- 
vanced into an ambuscade which had been laid for him. 
His corps of Texans was soon disorganized, Toledo tried 
to effect a temporary retreat, but the Americans had now 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 227 

got into the fray and were intractable. There was a 
furious struggle for some hours, but the Mexicans did not 
stampede this time. Their phalanxes were too solid. 
Their artillery mowed down the oncoming allies, and when 
the day was done Toledo had lost his first battle, and there 
was no longer an American invading army. This battle 
of the Medina occurred August 18, 1813. 

To complete the disaster Manchaco and his followers 
went over to the enemy. He gave Arredondo full infor- 
mation as to the state of affairs in the province, and acted 
with him in pursuing and punishing the insurgents. The 
Americans, those who survived the battle of the Medina, 
struck for home from the fatal field. At Spanish Bluffs, 
one of the scenes of their victories, seventy or eighty of 
them were captured. Their fate was in keeping with the 
mediaeval style of warfare which their irruption in the prov- 
ince had made common. They were marched to an island 
in the Trinity. Here a long and deep grave, or trench, was 
dug. Across this pieces of timber were laid. The pris- 
oners were tied and set upon these cross-pieces, by tens. 
As they were shot they tumbled into the common grave. 

Only ninety-three of the American invaders succeeded in 
regaining Natchitoches, among whom were Captains Perry, 
Bullard, and Taylor, the latter badly wounded. Even 
while they were escaping from Texas they met volunteers 
on the road to join in the supposedly complete conquest. 
And Texas had been conquered. Magee's plans had worked 



228 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

out well to that extent. If he had been a Bernadotte or a 
Jackson, with the strength of command of either of them, 
he would doubtless have dominated the short-sighted 
marauders around him and made his conquest secure. 

It is characteristic of our national self-esteem that more 
than one historian of these events has attributed the de- 
feat of the Americans to the treachery of Manchaco, 
ignoring the ruthless, predatory character of the expedi- 
tion, and the entire lack of administrative or constructive 
ability of anybody connected with it, at least after Magee's 
death. 

It is one of the whimsicalities in our histories — except- 
ing a few of the most critical ones — that the leaders who 
survived this predatory expedition have been honored as 
heroes in the cause of liberty, rather than censured as plain 
buccaneers, which they really were. Foote, as previously 
cited, lauded Kemper as a liberator, — but then, he consid- 
ered Aaron Burr a liberator also. It is probable that 
during the remainder of their lives they posed as veterans 
who had battled in a sacred cause. In fact, it stands in 
the records that Ross, one of those who quit when there 
was no more booty in sight, who lived in Mississippi long 
afterward, went in 1830 (after their republic was estab- 
lished), on a journey to Mexico where he solicited a pension 
for his alleged military services in their revolutionary cause. 
Whether he received it or not, it indicates the audacity of 
his pretensions. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 229 

The tale of this most successful, as it was also the 
largest and most disastrous, buccaneering expedition of 
Americans against the Spanish possessions would not be 
all told if omission were made of its awful consequences. 
The Spaniards were highly incensed against the inhabit- 
ants of Texas for their complicity in the attempted 
revolution, as well as for their republican sympathies. 
Arredondo marched into San Antonio from the victo- 
rious field, and immediately seized some seven hundred 
peaceable citizens who had, according to information given 
by the renegade Manchaco, their former neighbor, wel- 
comed the "liberators." He confined three hundred of 
them in one house, which was tightly closed, one hot 
August night, and eighteen of them died by suffocation. 
" From day to day the others were shot without any form 
of trial."" During this time his troops were scouring the 
province, capturing and killing Republicans wherever 
found. A large company of women and children, widows 
and orphans of these victims, were driven into San Antonio 
long distances on foot. 

But this did not appease the vindictive Arredondo. 
He had a prison-barrack built at San Antonio for women 
— mostly widows of his vengeance. In this he penned up 
five hundred females, all classes and conditions, young and 
old, the refined and the vile, and worked them together. 
He jocosely called it " the Quinta." Their sentence was to 
convert twenty-four bushels of corn into tortillas each day 



230 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

for his army. The property of all his victims was con- 
fiscated. San Antonio was indeed mightily stricken. 
The Americans had despoiled and corrupted her, but now 
was the climax of her misery ! 

Many of the hard characters who escaped from the dis- 
asters of the Medina stole away and took up their abode 
in the " neutral ground," a retreat for desperadoes which 
the nations had not yet been unkind enough to abolish ; 
and thus a nucleus was preserved for further hostile 
organizations. 



CHAPTER XI 



Colonel Perry's Exploit — Joins with Awry and Mina — The Trium- 
virate Descends on Mexico — Splits on the Rock of Jealousy — Mina 
Captured — Perry Returns to Texas — Dies in Battle. 

OLONEL PERRY 

had not yet had 
enough of conquest. 
It is somewhat of a 
marvel how the ad- 
venturers of his 
stamp managed in 
that day to secure 
backing for their 
enterprises, — upon 
what means they 
lived while putting 
their plans into 
operation. Perry 
must have come out 
of Texas, on the run from the Medina, without anything 
but his bedraggled uniform. Yet he at once engaged 
in another enterprise against the Spanish possessions. 
Of this one he was the impresario. The measure of 
success that had been attained by the Magee expedition 




THE GLORY SEEKERS 

encouraged the belief that another attempt would reap 
permanent benefits. To be sure, no leader who had been 
in that army had any chance of ever winning ; if he could 
not seize the opportunity that went begging at San 
Antonio, after conquest had been effected, there was noth- 
ing in him to count on afterwards. But he could not 
take that measure of himself. 

As in the case of Magee, he sought to attract the dis- 
affected of Texas and Mexico by employing as ostensible 
leaders exiled revolutionary "patriots." Of these he 
formed a cluster, the centre brilliant of which was Jose 
Alvarez Toledo. Of his American adherents, the prin- 
cipal one was John Robinson, an adventurer who had for 
some time plied about New Orleans. Robinson seems to 
have done a good deal of coining trouble on his own 
account without succeeding in putting much of it into 
circulation. 

The Perry expedition began to take form soon after the 
battle of New Orleans, in which, by the way, Kemper had 
arrived home from Texas in time to serve " with distinc- 
tion."" But the United States authorities, having received 
urgent complaints from Spain on account of the American 
raids into her territory, got the scent of this one in time 
to nip it in the bud. Probably they would never have 
heard of it if Perry had not advertised it prominently in 
the papers. All those instigated in it, save Perry, were 
indicted in the United States District Court for violation 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

of the neutrality laws. Why the chief promoter was not 
included is not explained. 

It is worthy of remarking, in this connection, that, so 
far as any records of the events indicate, not one of those 
who were implicated in the Magee expedition — and who 
lived to return — was ever called to account in any way 
for it by the Federal or any State government. 

It is reported that Perry, although not apprehended, 
was vigilantly watched. Perhaps that is why he went 
over into that paradise of the lawless, the "neutral 
ground." But for some reason he did not rally the old 
clan around him. He crossed the Sabine into Texas, and 
having concluded to try his fortunes now by water, went 
down to the Gulf and gathered a tiny armada. This he 
manned with a crew of desperadoes, spiced for deviltry on 
either land or sea. 

Fate was against this precious lot, for they had hardly 
set sail for Mexico when they encountered a storm which 
blew them back and disabled their frail craft. PeiTy was 
undaunted. By communication with friends in Texas he 
learned that Arredondo had returned home, and that, 
Texas having been so fearfully reduced by his punish- 
ments, only two or three hundred troops were now on 
guard in the province. 

At this time Luis de Aury, "commander of the com- 
bined fleets of the republics of Mexico, New Grenada, 
Venezuela, and La Plata," consisting of a dozen or fifteen 



234 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

crazy vessels, had occupied Galveston. It is needless to 
explain that the republics named were in the revolutionary 
stage, and prospective. Aury had a great command — on 
paper, — but his war vessels were insignificant tubs, most 
of which, for safety, needed to keep within shore view. 
They were manned by vagrant refugees, mostly mulattoes, 
the crews leavened with a few pirates from Barataria, the 
chief business centre of Lafitte and his merry outlaws. 

Aury was from New Grenada. It must be believed 
that he was a man of some ability and, while careless as to 
the instruments he worked with, was sincere in his 
endeavors to overthrow Spanish rule in America. At 
Galveston this man set up a government, and his followers 
elected him civil and military Governor of Texas. No 
sooner had he taken his oath of fidelity to the new repub- 
lic of Mexico (which was somewhere in the saddle among 
the Mexican mountains) and devotion to liberty, than he 
started his flieet out privateering on Spanish commerce. 
Probably a bolder and more desperate lot of " privateers "^ 
never scouted the gulf, for with their weak armament they 
practically cleared it of Spanish merchantmen. 

To Aury, man of many titles and much theoretic 
authority, came Perry, and, of course, was cordially wel- 
comed. Then another and still more famous man than 
either of the two joined them. He was Xavier Mina, an 
exiled Spanish officer, who fled before the conquering 
French and reached Baltimore with fifteen brother officers. 




Xavier Mina 

Spanish- American revolutionary adventurer 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 235 

Those were great days for exiled chivalry and homeless 
patriotism, Mina also brought some money. Toledo no 
sooner heard of this than he hied him to Baltimore, and 
made up to Mina with plans and specifications. Being a 
brother aristocrat, he obtained a respectful hearing, with 
the result that together they began immediately to fit out 
a squadron with the object of conquering Florida and 
setting up a separate and " free "" government. 

September 16, 1816, they were ready, and sailed with 
two hundred troops on board, and plenty of arms and muni- 
tions. But this expedition met with the same evil luck 
that Perry's did out of the Sabine bayous. The two 
hopeful leaders were shipwrecked, quarrelled, and soon 
afterward Toledo, probably receiving a tempting offer, 
went over to the new King of Spain. Their undertaking 
would have come to naught, for Florida was soon after- 
ward invaded by General Jackson, and a year or two later 
was ceded to the United States. So this scheme being 
frustrated, Mina got his ships and tackle to rights and 
sailed away to Galveston to join the foes of oppression 
there. 

In the meanwhile Aury had been conducting business 
not very creditable to one of his pretensions. His " priva- 
teers " had not confined their depredations on the Gulf to 
Spanish craft, but had scuttled several vessels engaged in 
legitimate trade under the American flag. The Spanish 
slavers they captured were the best revenue producers. 



236 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Instead of liberating the slaves, as a man professing such 
holy devotion to liberty might have been expected to do, 
Aury effected an arrangement with the Baratarians, 
through which he was enabled to get them into the 
United States markets. The general scheme, however, 
was not original with Aury. It had been worked before 
him. James Bowie was a prominent slave-dealer. He 
"stood well" with the planters. He also was in good 
standing with Lafitte, the King of the Baratarians, 
pirates who took their name from the island they 
infested. Lafitte did a " regular "" business — taking any 
slow ship. But the negroes could not be disposed of in 
Mexico, so the pirates would run them into the United 
States by water through Bayou La Fourche, and thence 
by land fiom Point Boliver and Alexandria. Here Bowie, 
and other speculative purchasers, would drive them by 
night. The trick now was to take them to a custom- 
house officer and have them denounced as impoz-ted con- 
traband. The Africans immediately would be sold under 
the law and repurchased by the speculator, who as 
" reformer " received half the purchase money. Then the 
human chattels could be resold, legally, to the planters. 
It must be remembered that the importation of slaves 
into the United States had for several years been pro- 
hibited by law. 

Aury was judge of his own court of admiralty, and 
assessed the value of negroes handled by his men. The 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 237 

price at Galveston was $1.00 per pound, or $140 per head, 
prime. 

So Perry, Aury, and Mina came together for the general 
purpose of warring on Spain. But their plans were not 
the same. Perry meant conquest — other details to be 
arranged later. Mina now determined to aid the new re- 
public in Mexico. Aury seemed to centre his ambition on 
Texas, and to feel that he was establishing an ideal re- 
public on the Texan coast. He had now three or four 
hundred men. Perry was stationed on the mainland 
with about one hundred. Mina brought about two hun- 
dred. Although they had leagued themselves in the same 
cause, all three claimed equal authority and independent 
command. 

After much discussion and negotiation they decided 
upon an expedition by water to Mexico, on which they 
embarked with their allied forces April 6, 1817. They 
landed at the mouth of the Satander River and captured 
the small town of Soto la Marina. The place really had 
no defence. But already there was discord in the triumvi- 
rate. Each was jealous of the other. Aury halted, and 
returned to Galveston. His defection greatly weakened 
the invading force, as he had the largest individual 
following. 

Not long after he was gone rumor reached Perry and 
Mina that a strong force of royalists was on the way to 
dispute with them. This did not enthuse Perry at all. 



238 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

His last dispute with a Spanish royalist army had been 
distinctly not to his fancy. So he managed to quarrel 
with Mina, and in a huff, assumed for an excuse, he de- 
parted, taking with him only fifty followers. Mina, thus 
left to his own devices and undivided authority, exhibited 
courage rather than judgment. He expected the country 
would rise at his approach, and that he would be enabled 
to meet the viceroy's troops with an overpowering army of 
republicans. Only a few joined him, but even with 
this handful of volunteers he defeated the first battalion 
he met, captured one or two more towns, and advanced 
a considerable distance inland. But he never had a 
possibility of achieving his purpose. At Remedios he 
was taken prisoner by the royalists, and by order of the 
viceroy he was shot. 

Perry set out with his little band of fifty to return to 
Texas overland through the enemy's country. It was a 
twelve-hundred-mile journey, and they had to subsist on 
the country, a great stretch of which was desert and moun- 
tain. But they eluded the royalists, gave their army posts 
no trouble, and finally arrived at the scenes of the 
Gachupin battles. 

This PeiTy was a hardened case. He was an adventurer 
without high purposes, and not distinguished for intelli- 
gence. What he expected to accomplish in Texas with 
a corporal's guard, can hardly be divined. But he be- 
gan operations by besieging La Bahia, the place where 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 239 

Magee's army had such a varied experience. Here he got 
into a tight place. The royahsts had heard of him, and 
sent a detachment of cavalry to look him up. This came 
up with him during the siege. The defenders of the 
town, seeing the army of relief attacking the enemy in the 
rear, sallied out, and the besiegers now found themselves 
surrounded. Including the garrison, they were forced to 
contend with about five times their own number. 

Whatever their motives or character, they fought like 
Spartans. Not a man showed the white feather, and not a 
man of them survived. Perry stood till the last. Seeing 
his last comrades fall, he killed himself by firing a pistol 
ball into his brain, as his old commander, Magee, had 
done at nearly the identical spot, but under such different 
circumstances, five years before. 



CHAPTER XII 



A Cultured Adventurer — Courtship of Doctor Long and Pretty Jennie 
Wilkinson — Long also Infatuated with Conquest — Invades Texas — 
Seeks an A lly in Lafitte. 

F there is any chap- 
ter of real romance 
in the chronicles of 
adventure in the 
Southwest, it is that 
which recites the 
story of the youth- 
ful and dashing Doc- 
tor Long and his 
more youthful and 
beautiful wife. 

After the terrible 
disasters to all those 
who had embarlced 
on schemes of con- 
quest, the initial goal of which was Texas, it required self- 
confidence and daring of an unusual order — either that or 
stupid desperation — to take up the perilous game again. 
And Doctor Long was no stupid. Neither had he in 
the least degree the qualities of a blundering desperado. 




THE GLORY SEEKERS 241 

He was a youth who had enjoyed the advantages of 
civilization, — so, for that matter, had Magee, — and his 
start in life was such that it is difficult to realize fully 
how he could have become so infatuated with a project so 
stupendous and risky as the conquest of a great province. 

However, we view his situation from a great distance ; 
greater than is measured by the flight of years since then. 
Safe to say, the obstacles are plainer — and look enough 
bigger — viewed from our side of them than they did from 
his side. Yet it may be said that no class of men ever 
drew such desperate drafts on the depositories of the future 
as that which speculated on this visionary dominion. 

It seems to have been almost impossible for anybody to 
write real romance into (or out of) the annals of Texas. 
It might have been otherwise, if Manuel de Godoy, Prime 
Minister and all but king of Spain, had been permitted to 
carry out his designs. According to a well-authenticated 
story Texas, or New Spain, was given by grant of the 
King to Godoy, who, having heard much about its vast 
extent and natural richness, resolved upon a grand scheme 
of colonization with a view to creating a magnificent em- 
pire. Not only was the province given to him, but ships 
and soldiers for his enterprise ; and he assembled a large 
number of young women from the " asylums " of Spain to 
send along. But just then there was an uprising of the 
people. Godoy ceased to be prime minister, but instead 
went into exile soon afterward ; the young women were 

16 



242 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

returned to their former abodes, and the grandees came 
not to New Spain. 

James Lough's career was exceptional. He was a young 
man of culture, of attractive appearance, of more intelligence 
than the average of adventurers. Yet he was entranced 
by something about as tangible as a mirage. He read 
Scott, and was dazzled by the glories of Napoleon. He 
grew restless and ambitious. The magnet of renown drew 
on his susceptibilities, and what appears a Quixotic venture 
now, was then regarded, not only by him but by many of 
his most intelligent acquaintances, as an entirely feasible 
undertaking. 

Long was a native of Virginia. At a very early age he 
removed with his parents to Tennessee. There he studied 
medicine, and became an acquaintance and favorite of 
General Jackson. (It seems odd that every man from 
Tennessee who became known in those days — adventurers 
particularly — was an intimate friend of Jackson.) Hav- 
ing entered the practice of his profession before the second 
war with England, he enlisted as a surgeon and was on 
duty at the battle of New Orleans. It is asserted that 
he distinguished himself, and that the General called him 
his young lion. Somebody probably thought of that 
afterward. 

After the termination of the war he was stationed at 
Natchez, still in the service. One day he went to attend 
a friend, a young officer named Calvert who was lying 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 243 

ill at a private house, suffering from injuries received in 
the famous battle. Now began the romance of his life. 
The story of it was written out by President Mirabeau B. 
Lamar, of the Lone Star State, and incorporated by Foote 
in his " Texas and the Texans." President Lamar may 
have been emulating the example of Governor Claiborne's 
story of Madeline ; at least, the style of fiction-writing of 
the two Executives is quite similar. They never argue, 
and do very little explaining. They state the case in a 
sort of executive-decree way, and we may take it at that 
or close the book. 

From this account it is learned that at the house in 
which the young officer Calvert was convalescing, there was 
a school -girl of fourteen who was an orphan, born in Mary- 
land, and the niece of General James Wilkinson. She was 
living: with her married sister. Another older sister was 
affianced to Lieutenant Calvert. Now, this Jennie Wilkin- 
son was a paragon. She was as beautiful as fourteen 
Southern Summers could make her, she was precocious, 
and had the animation of a gazelle. 

One morning as she was about to start schoolward a 
forward minx of a mulatto slave girl, employed in the 
capacity of a maid, volunteered the information that the 
"handsomest gem man she'd ever sot her two eyes on" 
was in the sick man's room, and suggested that " Missy 'd 
better take a peek." 

" What you suppose I care, you saucy thing ! " replied 



244 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Missy Jennie with well-merited rebuke. But the wench 
maintained she had been warranted by the provocation — 
that the doctor who had come to tend the sick man was 
*' sholy the most handsomest man in the whole world.*" 

So Miss Jennie, instead of living up to her pretensions 
of haughty indifference to manly beauty, slipped around 
slyly and not only " peeked "" but took a long and admir- 
ing look. It is not intended to be understood that the 
.statesman tells the tale in quite this flippant manner — 
some of the dignity of his diction has been sacrificed to 
intimacy. But the story is the same. 

Well, after taking her " peek," Miss Jennie took off her 
sun-bonnet, and went to making herself more womanlike 
than she had ever done before ; and planted herself in the 
main living-room, east side of the hall, so that the unsus- 
pecting knight of the lancet and calomel could n"'t get out 
without encountering trouble, — or at least without seeing 
her. A girl twice her years could not have taken a worse 
advantage of him. And there she waited, pretending that 
she was interested in nothing in the world but the morning- 
glories blowing in at the window. 

By and by out came the young doctor. He did not fall 
over, but he acted pretty well as if he had come in contact 
with one of Signor Galvani"'s recently invented batteries, 
which he had just been explaining about. But in spite 
of his unusual equipment for heart-breaking he walked on 
out, and never said a word. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 245 

Anybody sane and observing would have thought the 
sick lieutenant had suffered a dangerous relapse, by the 
increased and anxious attention his doctor began to give 
him from that morning. His fiancee noticed it and be- 
came alarmed, and the lieutenant himself began to inquire 
a lot about his symptoms. What was more alarming, 
the doctor fidgeted when he came morning and afternoon 
and evening, and did not seem to icnow just what to 
prescribe next. 

But in a day or two they espied him playing checkers 
with Jennie, and those two engaged ones understood the 
situation. It was explained, and none too soon. For 
the lieutenant, although he had been well on the road to 
recovery, would surely have been frightened into a setback 
with a day or two more of it. 

Now there arose such a tempest as only can be imagined. 
Whether her aunt and uncle punished Jennie it is not cer- 
tain, but they and all her other relatives and protectors 
entered all other forms of objections. They scolded, they 
coaxed, they declared that not only was she too young by 
years to marry, but that she should never marry a man 
who would take such advantage of childish innocence ! 
Then in the same breath they said it was her wilfulness. 
And besides, the doctor himself was only twenty. Even 
his friend the lieutenant, perhaps fi-om having to keep 
loyal to the family, gently remonstrated with the boy. 

" Put it off for a while, Jimmie,"" he would say ; 



246 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

*' why, she '11 just grow more beautiful the longer you 
wait." 

But Jimmie just looked satisfied and would not talk 
back. Nevertheless, the uncle and aunt kept Jennie very 
close now, and although she declared she would never wed 
any other, and cried over it, they said she should not 
marry. Perhaps they would have had their way had not 
they been outgeneraled. Not by an elopement, either, 
but a more romantic way than that. 

It would almost appear as if it was just to meet such 
emergencies as this, but anyway there was a law in Missis- 
sippi in those days which provided, and made mandatory, 
that an orphan, upon arriving at the age of fourteen, being 
supposed then to have some sense, should choose a guar- 
dian. At least our president-author says there was such a 
law, and it is presumptive that he knew, he having formerly 
resided in that State. One might be pardoned the sus- 
picion that he had been Jennie''s lawyer, and that he put 
up the ruse himself. But anyhow, the time now having 
arrived to make her choice, she chose the doctor for her 
guardian and married him into the bargain, for against 
the guardian's permit no one could say nay. The marriage 
occurred May 4, 1815. The exact date gives verisimili- 
tude to the story. 

Not long after their man'iage the youthful couple went 
to live at Port Gibson. The doctor resigned his commis- 
sion and took up practice again. But he was a restless 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 247 

sort of spirit, and would never remain long at any one 
place. Coming into a little money from some source, he 
decided to turn planter. Going up the river a little far- 
ther, he bought a plantation which included the site of the 
subsequent city of Vicksburg. Here he really laid the 
foundation for a fortune, but it was not in the man to 
wait. Very soon land speculators began to tempt him, 
and he sold out to Mr. Vick, after whom the city was 
named — and a pretty hard speculator he was, too. 

Being now out of planting, with his money in hand. 
Long went back to Natchez and engaged in still another 
occupation — merchandising. In this he remained two 
years, and it was during this time that the Southwest was 
raised to a high pitch of excitement and indignation over 
the treaty which had been entered into by John Quincy 
Adams and the Spanish Minister de Onis, fixing the 
Southwest boundary at the Sabine River (finally doing away 
with the " neutral ground " nuisance) ; and no less aroused 
by the proposed bill in Congress, limiting slavery to 
36° 30' North latitude. 

Up to this time enterprises against Spanish territory 
had been prompted by the spirit of adventure, which was 
mainly produced by the unusual political conditions of the 
times. But after the widespread dissatisfaction with the 
government of the new republic had been allayed, other 
things transpired to direct the attention of the restless 
toward the Mexican provinces, not the least of which was 



248 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the publication, in 1807, of Captain Zebulon Pike''s account 
of his explorations. 

When the United States came into possession of Louisi- 
ana, nobody had any definite knowledge of the territory 
purchased. It seemed almost boundless. It was so vast, 
indeed, that our government had not wanted to buy it all, 
simply fearing the responsibility. Our plenipotentiaries 
were instructed to negotiate for Orleans Territory only, 
but after dickering for a while Napoleon gave the order 
one day to "sell them all or nothing." As President 
Jefferson felt that the order was final, he took the whole 
at the same price. 

Wanting to find out something about this new domain, 
the government sent out an expedition under command of 
Captain Pike, of the regular array, to explore it. Among 
other exciting things that happened to him, the captain 
ran foul of the Spaniards. They suspected the motives of 
the party, as they had warrant, based on previous experi- 
ences, to suspect any such expedition from this country. 
They forbade him crossing the Sabine, and when he 
pushed ahead regardless, Governor Cordero sent a regi- 
ment of 600 regulars to gather him in. However, Pike 
evaded arrest by losing himself somewhere in the unknown 
wilds. But while he eluded the Mexicans this time they 
subsequently captured him in New Mexico, and took him 
before the authorities at Santa Fe. They forwarded him, 
bag and baggage, to Chihuahua, where he was kept in 




Lieutenant Zebulon Pike 
Government explorer of the Great Southwest 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 249 

duress for some time, and his papers expropriated. Upon 
his release and return, his report of the vast and diversi- 
fied region he had traversed fired many of the adventur- 
ous spirits of our Southwest to reach out for some of it ; 
and, of course, they preferred that belonging to Spain. 

But with the Adams-De Onis treaty, the incentive 
everywhere was changed. Records of the time show that 
the whole Western country complained because of the 
boundary settlement. Everybody thought the boundary 
should have been fixed farther West — that we should 
have secured the most or all of Texas, which they pre- 
tended to believe was thrown in with the Louisiana 
purchase. 

As to the slavery proposition, this was about the first 
outcry of the slave proprietors against having limits set 
or proposed against their " institution "" ; and although 
the bill mentioned did not pass in Congress, it was an 
admonition of what was coming later. The slavers 
already had been looking to Texas, and as soon as the 
terms of the treaty became known many of them began 
to talk defiance of the government and the " right "" to 
seize Texas. This province was looked upon as much 
more valuable than Florida, and many felt — not without 
a little reason in the facts — that in the closures Texas 
had been sacrificed for the peninsular State. The extrem- 
ists (and America did not lack noisy ones then more 
than at any other time) declared the government had 



250 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

deliberately violated her fundamental policy of never 
relinquishing temtory once possessed. The constitution 
experts were in evidence then, as usual when any disputed 
question of government policy arises, and declared that 
the " cession " of Texas to Spain was beyond the treaty- 
making power. 

Of course, the United States did not cede Texas, never 
having had possession of the Territory. In Congress it 
was urged that our government had pledged its honor to 
France to incorporate all of the Louisiana purchase into 
the Union — not making out a case, however, showing 
that Texas, or even any portion of it, was included therein. 
It was a quibble in which great numbers of the people 
joined in opposition to the government, to the credit 
neither of their good sense nor of their moral perception. 
But it was inspired largely by the already increasing 
demand for slave lands, a demand which never could 
have been satisfied. 

This was the state of public feeling in the South when 
Doctor Long returned to Natchez. It appeared to him 
that now was the time for a brilliant coup. His sugges- 
tions for the organization of a company as the nucleus 
of an army to take the coveted land met with hearty en- 
dorsement by the planters and traders of his vicinity. 
Getting the Texas virus in his system, he began to work 
up public meetings to promote his projects. It was a 
popular scheme. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 251 

When Philip Nolan organized his party at the same 
town nearly twenty years before, there was a semblance of 
secrecy about it. At least, many of those who sanctioned 
his enterpi'ise did not care to be known publicly as doing 
so. Now, everything was bold and above board ; and one 
wonders why the government did not receive advices about 
it through its marshals and judges, if through no other 
channel, and forbid the proceeding. Neither Nolan's nor 
Long's enterprise was the lawless adventure of one man, as 
some commentators, whose habit it is to assume that 
everything sanctioned by the American people is righteous, 
have hinted. That is largely true of Magee's plunge, but 
in the other cases " enlightened ^ public sentiment was 
mainly responsible. 

At one of the public meetings at Natchez a call was 
issued for volunteers to go to Texas. A subscription was 
opened for a conquest fund. Doctor Long had been one 
of the chief speakers at the meeting, and he now became 
one of the first and largest subscribers. The fact shows 
how entirely he cast his life, his fortune, his future, and 
his honor on the chances, that he closed out his busi- 
ness and devoted practically all his means to the under- 
taking. When the company was organized he was given 
the chief command of it, with the title of general. That 
he was lacking in most of the qualities that fit a man for 
such a command can hardly be doubted. He was only 
twenty-four. He was not an experienced soldier, his short 



252 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

period of army service having been as a surgeon. And he 
lacked those stern, domineering characteristics that give 
men authority over others. 

In June, 1820, Long set out from Natchez with seventy- 
five men. He left his wife in a precarious condition, and 
two young children. Another child was born to them 
a week or two after his departure. But it cannot be 
deemed an evidence of indifference that he left his wife 
at such a time. She was every whit as full of the enter- 
prise as he was, and it was agreed that she should follow 
and join him as soon as she was able. They really had 
visions of making their future home in Texas, and of 
shaping the destinies of the country. 

It is impossible to state whether Mrs. Long or her 
husband imbibed any of their ideas of conquest from her 
uncle, the disloyal general ; but it is remarkable that every 
one of these expeditions traces back in some way to that 
arch-plotter, Wilkinson. 

As Long marched through Louisiana he received ad- 
ditions to his company, so that at Natchitoches he had 
three hundred enthusiastic men around him. Among 
them was Colonel Samuel Davenport, rancher and con- 
tractor, who had been of the Magee expedition ; Colonel 
James Bowie, a prominent gentleman, fighting man, and 
illicit slave-trader of New Orleans, inventor of the mur- 
derous stabbing-knife which bears his name ; and there, 
too, was old Gutierrez, as patriotic as ever, and ready 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 253 

to join any raid that promised spoils and good living. 
There were, no doubt, some reputable men with the 
doctor, measured by the standards of the country, but he 
had also the usual contingent of discontents whose highest 
ideal of liberty was absence of laws. 

Long took possession of Nacogdoches, in Texas, ap- 
parently without opposition. On June 23 he issued a 
proclamation, styling himself President of the Supreme 
Council of Texas. In this utterance he declared that 
" the citizens of Texas have long indulged the hope 
that, in adjusting the boundaries of the Spanish posses- 
sions in America and of the Territories of the United 
States, they should be included within the limits of 
the latter." This was followed by a proclamation declar- 
ing the independence of Texas, and that it was a free 
republic. 

A government was organized. It declared itself pos- 
sessed of powers to enact laws relating to public lands, 
revenues, etc., as necessities required. The Supreme 
Council also provided, under powers conferred upon it 
by itself, for the sale of the best lands at not less than 
one dollar per acre, one-half to be paid in cash on 
receipt of certificate, the balance to be met in easy 
annual instalments. They also did something of more 
historical interest, — they established the first printing 
shop and newspaper in the province. Horatio Bigelow 
was the editor. 



254 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

The principal ofl&cials in this sod-house government 
besides Long, were Davenport and Bowie. Also promi- 
nent in the Council was David Long, brother of the presi- 
dent, who seems to have been most active in establishing 
barter with the Indians. He made a trading trip as far 
westward as the Trinity River, which shows that the 
whole eastern fiontier was defenceless. , 

Having effected an organization. Long proceeded to 
take more effectual control of the country. He de- 
spatched a Major Smith with forty men to establish 
themselves at Cooshattie village on the Trinity. He 
also sent Captain Johnson with about an equal force to 
make a settlement at Brazos Falls. Next Major Cooke 
was detailed to Pecan Point, with thirty or forty fol- 
lowers, and Captain Walker was ordered with twenty- 
three men to plant American civilization on a slavery 
foundation at Washington. 

After splitting up his command and distributing the 
parcels of it around at points widely distant from each 
other, so that the enemy, whether royalists or savages, 
could attack and eat them up in detail, the contriver of 
this ingenious piece of strategy went on a journey to 
Galveston. The "general" had previously sent Colonel 
Gaines thither with plenipotentiary powers to solicit an 
alliance with Lafitte, the present lord of the island and 
prince of the gulf pirates. That courtly ruffian, to whose 
name has clung a mysterious and lasting notoriety, had 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 255 

changed his residence and jurisdiction from Barataria to 
Galveston two or three years before. The object of 
Gaines''s visit was to secure the cooperation of Lafitte and 
his hardened band with the Supreme Council. It was a 
desperate move. 



CHAPTER XIII 



The Invader and the Corsair — Disasters Afield — The Garrison at Bolivar 
— Jennie Long's Distress and Loyalty — A Heroine in the Wild. 

MBASSADOR 
GAINES did not 

succeed in his mis- 
sion to the corsair 
prince, and so the 
president-general 
determined to nego- 
tiate in person with 
the distinguished 
outlaw. Recalling 
Major Cooke from 
Pecan, he invested 
him with the gen- 
eral command dur- 
ing his own absence, 

and with his accustomed self-confidence set out to induce 

Lafitte to come and enjoy with him the blessings of 

conquest. 

He found the pirate leader a smooth-spoken son of 

villany, in form and style the typical pirate king. The 




THE GLORY SEEKERS 257 

story of his deeds is too common to require repetition, 
but it may be stated that this was the era of his supposed 
reform. Having defied those who set a price upon his 
head, and retaHated by himself offering a reward for the 
head of the Governor of Louisiana, the desperado had 
finally made terms with authority and engaged his ser- 
vices against the English in the second war. 

Later he took up privateering again, with the under- 
standing that he would not disturb American commerce. 
Building him a house on Galveston Island, and surround- 
ing himself with comforts, he had been recognized by the 
professed republican " patriots '*' of Texas, now comprising 
very few besides outlaws and exiles, and they gave him the 
title of " Governor of Galveston." 

The reason Lafitte gave Gaines for declining Long's 
proposal was his disbelief in the success of the enterprise. 
He cited the failures of Nolan, Magee, and Perry, and 
could not see how the present expedition could hope to do 
any better. But the real reason, no doubt, was that he 
scented rivalry in Long, and looked forward to gathering 
around him a force strong enough to control the province 
alone. And besides, he was just getting into fresh trouble. 
As a reformed villain he was not calculated to shine, and 
furthermore there was too little money in it. 

He had not kept his crimson hands off from American 
merchantmen, or at least his industrious subjects had not, 
and the king got the discredit. An uncommonly fierce 

17 



258 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

cutthroat denominated in the guild as "the Ferocious," 
who had won most evil renown, applied to Lafitte to enter 
his service as privateer against the Spaniards, But the 
monarch of pirates and governor of patriots having had a 
hint that the United States Navy had an eye on him, and 
fearing his applicant lacked judgment in such delicate 
business, was inclined to deny him. 

" If I scuttle anything but Spanish, you may hang me," 
said the Ferocious, by way of entreaty. 

" All right," assented Lafitte ; " I '11 just hang you if 
you do." 

The Ferocious, — what particular kind of deviltry he 
had committed to merit this appellation of excellence is 
not entered in the minutes, but, safe to say, he was a man- 
eater, — the Ferocious took this verbal compact as a pleas- 
antry between friends, a sort of gentlemen's agreement 
that did not portend much. In that carelessness of dis- 
cernment, he started off over the seas and scuttled the 
very first vessel he sighted, the same being an American 
schooner, near Sabine Pass. There may have been some 
ocular confusion in this case, all flags having for so long 
looked alike to this terror of the deep. But to his mis- 
fortune, just at that time the United States revenue patrol 
Lynx, commanded by Captain Maury, — one of the old 
Virginia Maurys, — came on the scene. Maury learned of 
the last depredation of the Ferocious, scouted him out, 
gave chase, and captured his craft in the bayou ; but the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 259 

scuttlers got away to shore, and returned by land to 
Galveston. 

Now this was the second bad mistake the pirate made, 
and a fatal one, for Lafitte learned about the whole trans- 
action ; and, fearing a business call from Maury, he 
hanged the Ferocious, according to previous mutual under- 
standing, and left him dangling conspicuously, anything 
but an ornament, for the navy captain to inspect. It 
seems that Lafitte was a man of his wor^ — sometimes. 
Of course, Maury was gi'ateful to him for such proof of 
his law-loving disposition, but he also demanded the 
associates of the deceased. Lafitte gave them up, not 
liking the pointed way the Lynx's guns had of overlooking 
his capital. But he objected to Maury's meddlesomeness, 
declared himself to be an official of the Republic of Texas, 
that Galveston was a port of entry of that republic, and 
other things similar. 

Maury went his way, deciding to let the star of forgive- 
ness shine on the alleged republic if it would heed the 
light. But Lafitte, as a reformer and honorable function- 
ary, appeared to lack moral influence over his fellows, for 
very soon they scuttled other American coastwise cruisers. 
And then the government despatched after them the brig 
Enterprise^ Lieutenant Kearney in command. Kearney 
called politely at Galveston, was affably received by 
Lafitte, dined with him, sipped his brandy, and smoked; 
and then ordered the pretentious prince of cutthroats to 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

take his government and all his crew and belongings and 
pack off instanter, or he would blow the whole nest of 
them into bits. 

The robber chieftain pleaded for a few days' time, 
which was granted ; and it was at this juncture that Long 
came with his prospectus. Whether or not the presence 
of Lieutenant Kearney had anything to do with his con- 
tinued refusal of the doctor's request is uncertain ; but 
anyhow, he packed off to the isthmus, and that was the 
last of Lafitte in Texas or thereabouts. 

In the weary meanwhile Mrs. Long, still beautiful, and 
grown as ambitious as her husband, was entering upon a 
sea of troubles that stirs one's warmest sympathies. After 
the birth of her baby, shortly after her husband's depart- 
ure from Natchez, she was eager for the journey to join 
him, and could wait only two weeks before setting out. 
Of course, it was a hazardous attempt. Under present- 
day conditions of travel she might have met with no 
serious results from her rash haste ; but then it was 
almost constant exposure. 

She stai-ted under the protection of two or three citi- 
zens, her neighbors, who were going to join their fortunes 
with her husband's enterprise. She took along a single 
nurse, a negress. For the first half of the way, she had all 
three of her children with her. They took boat and went 
down the Mississippi to its confluence with the Red River. 
Then they ascended the Red as far as Alexandria, where 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 261 

i-esided her sister, now married to Lieutenant Calvert, the 
invalid of the first act, and here she lay sick from 
exhaustion and exposure for four weeks ! 

But she would not forego the remainder of her journey. 
Leaving her two oldest children with Mrs. Calvert, she set 
on from here by horseback. She rode with the servant on 
the crupper, the negress fairly holding her mistress in the 
saddle. For most of the way the men earned the infant. 
When it is considered that they traversed much rough 
country, including a great deal of swamp-land, and wilder- 
nesses thick with undergrowth ; that the roads were traces 
that were often lost in the mire ; that it was tropical mid- 
summer, with torrents of rain, and that the distance, by 
the route, was about two hundred miles after leaving the 
river, it will be realized what the invalid mother's hard- 
ships were. We have a still more intimate understanding 
of them when we read in Lamar's account that one of the 
men of her little party died from the effects of the trip. 

Yet this does not describe any unusual instance of 
hardships by travel in the new countries. Aside from the 
circumstance of illness, the journey of Mrs. Long was 
common to the time, and our great-grandmothers seemed 
not to live the shorter lives because of them. 

Jennie Long recuperated after arriving at Nacogdoches, 
the " capital "" of the freebooters' new Texas government. 
She was there with her husband several weeks before he 
depai'ted on his mission to Galveston. The doctor must 



262 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

have suffered as much heartache at leaving her here as 
when he left her at Natchez, and have felt a thousand 
more misgivings. In sober truth, he already was appre- 
hensive about his position. Rumors were in the simoons 
that swept across and withered the Texas steppes, of 
royalists marshalling with the watchword of death to 
Americano invaders ! He was doubtful about his abihty 
to hold the country against them, and he knew the war- 
fare they would wage against him would not be like 
that between nations recognizing "civilized" rules. Some 
recruits had straggled along, but there had been no such 
movement to join him as he had expected. The slave- 
holders wanted Texas. They demanded it as a right. 
But most of them preferred to remain on their plantations 
and let others go and do the fighting for it. In the 
meanwhile they would courageously damn the government 
for " relinquishing " the province. 

Well may President-General Long, of the Supreme 
Council, have feared for his success, to the desperate limit 
of seeking aid from the pirate king. Trouble was on the 
march for him. And it made connections with his numer- 
ous settlement-posts before he had been gone many days. 
The royalists first attacked Johnson, on the Brazos, and 
took eleven prisoners. The rest of the Americans there 
escaped, but were rapidly pursued to Walker's fort at La 
Bahia. Here they were attacked by a much superior 
force of three hundred Mexican regulars, and fled. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 263 

leaving their baggage and provisions, as well as many 
of their arms. 

Things began to go awry also at the capital, where 
another sort of enemy disturbed his government. "While 
Long was on the way back he received a message from his 
wife, sent by an express rider, informing him that Major 
Cooke, who had been left in principal authority, had 
" resumed his old habits of drunkenness "" and that things 
were going altogether badly. Also that it was reported 
that the royalist troops had attacked some of the posts, 
and that nothing was being done under the disorganiza- 
tion at Nacogdoches towards preparations for repelling 
them. 

The doctor pushed on rapidly for his headquarters, and 
arrived there to find the place in a panic. Stragglers 
began to come in. From them he learned that his 
brother David had been killed in a battle near the Brazos 
River. The story, as it subsequently was told, was unusu- 
ally sorrowful. While the Americans were being close 
pressed, David had received a blow that felled him from 
his horse. He was hardly stunned, but before he could 
remount, one of his own men seized the horse from him, 
leaped into the saddle, and escaped. David was left with 
nothing but his sword to defend himself with, and being 
on foot, escape was cut off. Refusing to suiTender, he was 
killed. 

Hearing of these disasters, and that the Mexicans were 



264 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

near at hand, Long packed up his personal effects and 
decamped from his capital with a disorganized company 
across the Sabine to American territory. He halted at 
Natchitoches and contemplated his fragments. His flimsy 
governmental structure had not a knuckle left in joint. 
The Magee remnants after the battle of the Medina had 
more chance of assembling themselves and winning than 
had these stragglers. If Long had had a manifold better 
cause, it would not have been to his credit to return to the 
venture. Mere dogged persistence against the dictates of 
common sense needs tremendous sentiment to render it 
a virtue. 

The Mexicans, or royalists, arrived at Nacogdoches to 
find that the government they had come to annihilate 
had been packed off in a trunk. Therefore they divided 
their force, sending a part after the fleeing officials, and 
the larger division after the invaders at Cooshattie. Here 
were gathered together Major Smith, and Captains 
Johnson and Walker, with their " allied forces " — about 
seventy-five men in all. They could not do anything but 
fight, although they got much the worse of it. The 
argument occurred on the prairie near the village, as they 
did not care to risk being penned up to make a Mexican 
slaughter-day ; and soon the fugitive invaders — some 
Texas historians indulge the fiction of calling them " re- 
publicans ■" — were dusting the plains homeward. 

They got across the Trinity to a point called Bolivar, 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 265 

on Galveston Bay, and made a stand. Within a short 
time they were rejoined by Long, who brought with him 
as many supporters as he could gather. What the valiant 
and warlike Colonel Bowie and the assassin Gutierrez were 
doing all this while of reverses cannot be dwelt upon, 
as the accounts are silent concerning them. Apparently 
neither distinguished himself by any act of heroism. 

After the general arrived at Bolivar the Americans 
built a fort, or log barracks, making their defences pretty 
strong. But watching through the chinks of a log fort 
for the coming of the foe is not progressive conquest, 
and Long again left his command to solicit aid, this 
time going to New Orleans. 

The accounts of what happened subsequently are some- 
what at variance. The operations of this garrison involve 
a question of doubt, but it appears that Mrs. Long joined 
her husband here before his departure. But in any event 
it is certain that he went to the Southern metropolis, and 
that he there fell in with two Mexican exiles, stanch 
patriots, to be sure, both of whom were thirsting to " lib- 
erate " Texas, — or any other Spanish province that offered 
something. Their names were Milam and Trespalachios. 
The latter was the more positive character. 

Taking up these Mexicans, and proclaiming Trespalach- 
ios as the head of the enterprise, the doctor solicited funds 
and volunteers for a second expedition, or an auxiliary 
to his first one. It was nominally to aid the republicans 



966 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

in their struggles against Spain, but the word was given 
privately that the possession of Texas for a separate gov- 
ernment, and the spoils of seizure, were what volunteers 
were to expect. In the proclamation this party issued 
upon setting off, Trespalachios styled himself " Lieutenant- 
General of the Mexican Army and President of the Su- 
preme Council of Texas." Titles were the strong points 
of the patriot adventurers of those days — titles and com- 
missions. Of course they could all issue commissions of 
any rank, — it all depended upon the size of the subscrip- 
tion the recipient made to the " liberation " fund. When 
Toledo came to New Orleans from Cuba he had a batch of 
such commissions in blank. 

Long's party went by water along the coast to the 
mouth of the San Antonio River. Here it landed, and 
only fifty-one men composed the army of which the 
lieutenant-general and president was the ostensible head. 
They proceeded up to La Bahia, which they occupied 
without opposition. It appears that most of the royalist 
troops had been withdrawn. Whether any company from 
the fort at Point Bolivar joined and cooperated with Long 
at this time is not certain, but it seems unlikely that they 
did. In fact, it appears certain that the garrison which 
the leader left at that fortification gradually melted away 
and forsook the enterprise. Long did not leave New 
Orleans till the Spring of 1821, and it is not improbable 
that they became disheartened during the long interim. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 267 

It was October 4 when the second party reached La 
Bahia, and on August 21 preceding had occurred the treaty 
of Cordova which practically freed Mexico from Spanish 
rule and was the beginning of her independence. Colonel 
Perez, commanding in Texas, did not recognize the pre- 
tension that the invading Americans were actuated merely 
by a desire to advance republican principles, so he sur- 
rounded them, took them prisoners, and marched them 
to San Antonio. From this place they were soon after- 
ward transferred to the City of Mexico. 

During the long, anxious Winter of 1819-20, and the 
longer and more hopeless Summer that followed, the little 
garrison at Point Bolivar awaited the return of their 
leader from New Orleans. The real sustaining influence 
was Mrs. Long. Her confidence in her husband seems 
never once to have faltered. That he would succeed in 
raising an adequate army, which ultimately would effect 
the conquest of the vast Province upon whose desolate 
border they were trembling in fear and hunger, was the 
chief article of her faith. She cheered the rude men 
around her with this assurance, some of whom were of 
notorious bravado. Much like the Countess Ordelaffi, the 
story of whose heroic defence of the castle of Cesena 
against the warrior-cardinal, Carrillo, pending the coming 
of her husband with his army, adorns mediaeval romance, 
the brave young wife animated this frail garrison. 

Month after month wore on, and one by one the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

defenders of the log fort drifted away. Occasionally came 
a letter from the Doctor at New Orleans. These always 
were of the most enthusiastic tenor. Great men were 
heartily espousing his cause. Such a general had pledged 
his cooperation, another noted politician had avowed his 
sympathy, another merchant had agreed to contribute 
supplies. But the experienced adventurers of the wasting 
company at Bolivar knew the great difference between 
such brave promises and bacon and meal in the boats. 
And as the seasons passed, and privations and dangers 
increased, they began to urge the abandonment of their 
position. 

Perhaps Mrs. Long was unreasonable — stubborn, if one 
chooses to say it ; but her husband had told her at their 
parting that he would come back to her in good time and 
strength ; and he had never yet deceived her. What if 
she should go and he should come and find she had 
deserted her trust.? Those who were alarmed at the 
menaces of the savages who came and destroyed their 
corn-patches and stole their mustangs, might retreat if 
they insisted, but not she ! 

Nevertheless, something had to be done. The second 
Winter was well advanced. The provisions were consumed. 
Northers were of unusual severity. The wilderness round- 
about had been cleared of game. There had been no 
message from the Doctor for months. They could rig up 
small coasters in which they might make their way to 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 269 

New Orleans. Mrs. Long disapproved. Then the hardy 
buccaneers would assist her overland to Natchitoches, — 
anyway to escape from present dismal conditions. " Not 
till the Doctor returns," she answered firmly. They told 
her they were going. She replied that she was not ! She 
would die first ! Then if her husband came he would find 
her remains and know that she at least was faithful to 
him to the end. 

And then those valiant cavaliers did something that, if 
it were not vouched for, we might dispute men of any 
character ever would do. They deserted Mrs. Long, leav- 
ing her in the log barrack on the bleak shore of the bay 
with her baby, her only protection the negress who had 
come with her from Natchez. 

" Oh, the long and cruel Winter ! "" Not a Winter of deep 
snow — not the icebound Winter of Minnehaha''s sufferings, 
but still one of famine, chilling winds, and the dismal 
howling of the wild. The larder became so empty that 
the two women, mistress and slave, gathered the ears of 
corn that had been left in the ruined field, parched the 
kernels, and cracked them for food. The faithful negress 
cut the firewood. And amid their desolation they were 
attacked by Indians. The Comanches came and, being 
denied admittance, attempted to break into the log en- 
closure. The women had firearms and ammunition, — the 
retreating conquerors had been considerate enough to 
leave those things to them, — and they knew how to use 



270 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

them. They handled their rifles Hke soldiers, and Jennie 
fired a small cannon at the redskins. 

The Comanches retreated, and fortunately did not at- 
tack again, although the young mother, clasping her baby 
to her breast, lived in mortal fear of being massacred. 
And thus she lived the Winter through, hoping from day 
to day to see her husband coming, and not receiving even 
a message, a word of love or encouragement. 

It cannot be explained, this neglect of Doctor Long to 
notify his wife of his movements. It may be he assumed 
that she was no longer at the fort. Possibly his messages 
may have been intercepted. After his removal to Mexico, 
it may have been impossible to communicate with her. 
Whatever the reason, during her last painful vigils misfor- 
tunes multiplied, and in the Spring, when the skies cleared, 
and planting-time had come again — only the despairing 
women had nothing left for seed — a vessel arrived at the 
Point. They were Americans who landed, and with an 
eagerness that cannot be described Jennie looked among 
them — surely he had come at last ! 

The visitors found her emaciated and careworn, — she 
had aged twenty years in two. And in answer to her 
anxious inquiries they told her, gently as they could, that 
he would never come — that Doctor Long was dead ! 

They took her away from the forlorn scene of her suf- 
fering, and on the way to her people told the story of his 
death. When he and his followers arrived as prisoners 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 271 

at Mexico City they entered the plea that, inasmuch 
as they had been operating in aid of the revolutionists 
of Mexico, and had assisted in establishing the inde- 
pendence of the nation, they were entitled to gratitude 
instead of punishment. Whether any gratitude was 
bestowed upon them or not, they were all set at liberty. 

As in many of the events of Long's career, there are two 
accounts of subsequent happenings. 

One would have us believe that he was invited to 
visit the capital " that he might receive appropriate 
honors as one of the champions of civil liberty." It is 
needless to say that this could not have been true. The 
same account inconsistently relates that, being thus grate- 
fully regarded, he was an object of suspicion by Iturbide, 
the first ruler of Mexico under a " free government," who 
issued secret orders for his assassination. In this manner 
marked, he was, while calling at the house of a Mexican 
official, and halting at the entrance to produce his pass- 
port, shot down by a soldier from an adjoining piazza. 

The other account, by reputable historians said to be 
the true one, gives it that after his release, early in 1822, 
he called at the military post of Los Gallos on some per- 
sonal matter ; that being denied entrance by a soldier, 
a dispute ensued. Being impatient of restraint, he 
resented the fancied indignity by striicing the man, who 
thereupon shot him. But what difference ? — James Long 
was dead ! And Jennie Wilkinson, widowed and graying 



272 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

at twenty-two, sorrowing with her children, without a 
home of her own, fortuneless because of their rash ven- 
ture, was the greatest sufferer from the most foolhardy 
and disastrous of all the wild enterprises against the 
Mexican provinces. 



CHAPTER XIV 



The Florida Exiles — A History Story seldom Told — Seminoles and 
Maroons — The Horror of Fort Nichols — An Echo from the 
Everglades. 

HIS is a narrative 
of a tragic motive. 
Whenever one de- 
clares there is a 
story of transgres- 
sion by Americans 
against a friendly 
people so disgrace- 
ful that it has sel- 
dom been told, he 
needs to be sure of 
his authority. Yet 
there is such a story, 
and a true one. It 
was not a trespass 

for conquest, as were the other raids herein recounted ; 

but it was with wickeder intent, and, unlike all the others, 

was instigated by a State and carried out by the Federal 

government. 

18 




274 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Nevertheless, it was buccaneering, and the most flagrant 
outrage of all the forays into Spanish territory. It was, in 
fact, a series of invasions with the most atrocious disregard 
of national laws and of the laws of humanity. They were 
those invasions of Spanish Florida in pursuit of escaped 
bondmen. Other filibusters, at the worst, aimed at no 
more than to take possession of the territory entered. 
These sought to enslave or kill the people, and did 
both. There must be the ugliest page in every country's 
history. This is it in ours. 

A natural hesitancy to recite it arises with the admoni- 
tion against arousing the dormant animosities of slavery 
days. No doubt the accounts from which this brief is 
taken helped bring on the rebellion, and, some may ask, 
does the ghost of that slavery which the war destroyed 
still walk ? Be that as it may, this is a tale of things 
worth remembering, although not flattering to our 
national vanity. 

The Florida Exiles, or Maroons, as they were called by 
the Spaniards, dwelt in the wilderness of the Everglades 
for more than forty years, and, like the Israelites in Egypt, 
the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and 
grew. And it was a period of affliction compared to 
which (not to speak irreverently) the forty years' wander- 
ing of the children of Israel was a holiday excursion. 

In early times the Carolinians had Indian as well as ne- 
gro slaves. The Indian slave was much given to running 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 275 

away. The negro thought his example a good one, 
and followed it. They escaped into Georgia, then a free 
colony. When Georgia introduced slavery, the Exiles, as 
those runaways were called, fled to Florida. Here they 
were recognized, both under Spanish and English rule, as 
free subjects, and permitted to take up public lands. By 
the middle of the eighteenth century there were enough of 
them to be a factor in the defence of the country. 

Requests were made for the enforced return of these 
refugees, and refused by the Spanish governors of Florida. 
That was, perhaps, the beginning of the slavery contention 
which ended only at Appomattox. 

Then there occurred a division of the Creek Indians in- 
habiting the wilds of Georgia. They had a tribal quarrel, 
and SeacofFee, a chief with an independent will, rebelled. 
Followed by a considerable number of his nation he went 
over into Florida and occupied vacant lands close to the 
Exiles. It was this rebellious part of the Creeks that be- 
came the Serainoles — the name signifying " runaways." 
Thenceforward they repudiated all authority of the Creeks. 
They intermarried with the Exiles, and in some degree 
merged with those refugees. 

It was not strange that this land of freedom, bordering 
that of slavery, became a favorite refuge for slaves escaping 
from Georgian masters. It seems that some of these ne- 
groes were enslaved by the Seminoles ; but — a strange 
commentary on the superior civilization of the whites — 



276 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

this was much preferred to their former situation. It was, 
in fact, a sort of serfdom, the serf occupying land apart 
from his master, working much as a free man, and giving 
the master a part of his produce. There was much primi- 
tive prosperity among these people. They occupied pro- 
ductive lands along the Apalachicola and Suwanee Rivers, 
kept flocks and herds, and were at peace with each other. 
They also remained at peace with the world until after the 
American Revolution. 

In 1785 Georgia made a pretended treaty with the 
Creeks (only two villages out of one hundred being repre- 
sented in the negotiations) by which the State secured a 
large strip of territory. In the treaty was a provision 
that the Creeks should return to former owners all slaves 
and horses that had been or would be in the future found 
among their people. The whites pretended to consider 
the Seminoles a part of the Creek Nation, and thus to hold 
all responsible for fugitive slaves, present and future. 

After the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, the 
Governor of Georgia placed in the hands of commissioners 
appointed by the government a list of the " property " 
lost by Georgians subsequent to the close of the war, and 
demanded indemnity. The list included also one hundred 
and ten negroes said to have escaped during the war and to 
have gone among the Creeks. The following year the 
government made a treaty with the Creeks for a return of 
all prisoners and negroes. History has made it appear 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 277 

that this meant merely the prisoners the Indians held. 
But the Governor of Georgia was empowered to appoint 
three commissioners to go among the Creeks and claim 
such prisoners and negroes as they found. No allusion 
whatever was made to the Seminoles or the Exiles in 
Florida. They had not been asked to join in the treaty. 

It was a plan to bind the powerful Creeks to surrender 
their kinsmen, or the Exiles among them, on Spanish 
territory. And it was a secret proceeding. The govern- 
ment stipulated to pay the Creeks $1500 a year for the 
service, perpetually ; also to pay Chief McGillivray $1200 
annually for life, and six other chiefs $100 annually for 
life. The payments were kept up — simply donations 
from the national treasury for securing the return of 
refugee slaves. 

The Seminoles of course repudiated the treaty, claiming 
they were an independent tribe, subject only to Spanish 
laws — as every American knew. Then an agent was 
sent to Florida to negotiate with the Spanish authorities 
for the return and reenslavement of the Exiles. But the 
Spaniards would not have it — would not recognize the 
claim of the Georgians to their subjects, red or black. 
Chafing at these defeats, the Georgians organized a force 
and made war on the Creeks, but to no purpose ; and 
during their discomfiture the government closed a treaty 
with Great Britian (1795) surrendering all claims against 
that nation for slaves carried away from the United States 



278 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

in British vessels during the Revolution, or for those who 
enlisted in the British service. This was a sad blow, as 
slave-owners had counted on large indemnity. 

There were other treaties with the Creeks, in which the 
Seminoles were not included, although the slave-holders 
subsequently maintained that they were still a part of the 
Creek Nation. They went all lengths to keep the negroes 
in bondage, and to capture estrays. Thus, when the 
Quakers, in the honesty of their faith, emancipated their 
slaves upon the adoption of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, the slave-owners arrested the free blacks on the 
charge of being "fugitives from labor."" The Quakers 
contested and obtained a decision for the blacks in the 
highest State courts. 

Then the legislature of North Carolina passed a law 
empowering persons possessing landed property to seize 
and reenslave the emancipated negroes. The planters 
would not stoop to it themselves, but they got a law 
passed authorizing any person to seize, imprison, and sell 
the free blacks. This gave the gamblers and speculators a 
chance. Terrible scenes ensued. Most of the blacks were 
ultimately forced back into slavery. Of course, they 
escaped as soon as opportunity offered, having once tasted 
of liberty. During this time the Southern Indians were 
going more into the slavery business, mainly by capturing 
estrays ; and in 1802 Congress was kind enough to the 
slave-holders to pass an act indemnifying them for slaves 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 279 

escaping to Indians in any part of the United States. In 
1811 Congress passed an act for acquiring Florida in the 
interest of the planters, thus to destroy the refuge of the 
escaped slaves, and to reenslave the Exiles. 

Governor Mathews of Georgia now headed an armed 
expedition into Florida, ostensibly to assist in an insur- 
rection against Spanish authority which had been worked 
up. The Spaniards complained to the government, and 
the expedition was recalled. But Mathews seemed to con- 
sider that his State was competent to declare war or make 
treaties, for the next year he organized an army and 
entered Florida with the avowed purpose of exterminating 
the Seminoles, who were regarded as the protectors of the 
Exiles. The buccaneers destroyed some settlements, but 
became surrounded by foes of all kinds and had to retreat. 
They conducted themselves as barbarians. Not being able 
to catch their former slaves, they robbed all in their course, 
including the Spaniards of their peons. 

The Georgians again appealed to the government, and, 
not getting aid, resolved to redress their " wrongs "" them- 
selves. Their legislature passed a resolution declaring the 
occupation of Florida — that is, the forcible seizure of it 
— as " essential to the safety and welfare of our people, 
whether Congress authorizes it or not " ; and they also 
passed an act to raise a force to reduce St. Augustine and 
punish the Indians. Under this formal declaration of war, 
made by a State against a nation with which the Union 



280 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

was at peace, Georgia enlisted another army of spoliation, 
five hundred strong, consisting largely of hunters, trappers, 
and backwoods vagabonds. This invasion of Florida was 
somewhat more successful than the previous one. It de- 
stroyed several villages, and drove away herds of cattle 
belonging to the Exiles, whose homes and crops they had 
ruined. But it failed to catch either the Exiles or their 
defenders, the Seminoles, 

The wilds and brakes were too deep and dense. The 
negroes and Indians could secrete themselves in the jungles 
and defy their persecutors. So, after a struggle lasting 
two years, ending May, 1813, the Georgians found them- 
selves unable to conquer Florida. However, the Federal 
government had made no protest against their trying. It 
was, in truth, too busy with other matters, having its 
second war with England on hand. Great Britain took 
notice, nevertheless, and sent a fleet, under Lord Cochrane, 
into Chesapeake Bay, issued a proclamation inviting all 
persons (meaning slaves) who desired to emigrate from 
the United States to come with their families on board, 
and giving them the choice of entering the naval service, 
or of settling in freedom in any of the British West 
Indies. 

This breach of morality by the British in tempting away 
the lawful property of the planters gave the latter a shock. 
It thi'eatened for a while to rid them of all their human 
chattels. The saddest thing about it was, of course, the 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 281 

interruption of the Christianizing of the said chattels ; 
that beneficence being the first foundation-stone of the 
" institution." But British interference did not rest with 
that. Two of their sloops of war entered Apalachicola 
Bay, landed marines under Lieutenant Nichols, and opened 
communication with the Exiles. These negroes and In- 
dians, pure and mixed, were fui'nished arms and ammu- 
nition, and employed by the lieutenant in building a fort 
for their defence, which subsequently bore the names both 
of Fort Nichols and of Fort Blount. 

The American navy chased the British away, but the 
fort with its strong armament and military stores remained 
in possession of the Exiles. It became the centre of their 
habitations, and they cultivated fields for a distance of 
fifty miles around, along the water-courses. 

Now it appears from the accounts of Mr. William Jay 
and Mr. J. R. Giddings, the principal authorities on this 
subject, that these Exiles and Seminoles were a quiet, un- 
offending people, cultivating the arts of peace in innocence 
and simplicity, and asking only to be left to their own as 
free Spanish subjects. It must be borne in mind, how- 
ever, that both of those authors wrote with the object of 
making out the worst possible case against slavery and the 
Georgian slave-traders. That they pictured the Arcadian 
peace and inofFensiveness of this retreat in too happy 
colors can hardly be doubted. The true condition of the 
Exiles and their Seminole friends was that of a mild 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

barbarism. The escaped slaves were in a state much Hke 
that of their original existence, and of the existence of 
their ancestors, in Africa. Their intermarriage with the 
Seminoles produced a race that cannot be classed as 
superior to either the Indians or negroes. Education was 
of the most rudimentary kind. Their morals were the 
morals of barbarism ; their principal vice, that of white 
men — whiskey. And that many animals stolen from the 
plantations in Georgia, as well as runaway slaves, found 
their way to these settlements, is altogether likely. Being 
in such close reach of the slave-tilled plantations, they 
unquestionably were a source of much vexation to the 
Georgians, and if only their removal had been demanded 
when Florida came into possession of the Union, there 
would have been little cause for censure. 

But that was not the object of the Georgians. They 
persistently claimed ownership of the Exiles, and of their 
offspring. They would not recognize that any negro had 
a right to exist free, nor did they ever admit that former 
slaves, and the children of former slaves, had any right of 
protection under Spanish laws on Spanish soil. Any 
escaped slave should be caught wherever found ; and they 
referred to the Exiles only as negroes and outlaws. 

Peace having come to the country once more, the army 
along the Southern frontiers was idle. The officers were 
mostly Southerners who sympathized with the Georgian 
view of the negro. It appears strange that they should 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 283 

have had no higher regard for the comity of nations than 
the slavers had, but it is a fact that in 1816 General Gaines, 
commanding in Georgia, urged upon his superiors an in- 
vasion of Spanish territory for the purpose of recapturing 
alleged fugitive slaves. 

General Gaines wrote to this effect to General Jackson, 
who commanded the Southwestern military district, with 
headquarters at Nashville. He represented to Jackson that 
Fort Nichols, the one left by the British, had been erected 
for rapine and plunder ; that it was a rendezvous for such, 
and that it ought to be blown up. This is the same 
General Gaines who, in after years, married the heiress 
Myra Clarke at New Orleans, and in his later life showed 
a much juster appreciation of the human as well as legal 
rights of the poor wretches against whom he now planned 
unholy war. 

General Jackson looked only at the emergency as it 
was presented to him, and finally wi'ote Gaines as to 
his opinions about the fort. " And if your mind shall 
have formed the same conclusion," he advised, " destroy it 
and return the stolen negroes and property to their right- 
ful owners." This quotation from his order shows clearly 
what the object of the invasion was to be — nothing more 
nor less than to catch fugitive slaves and destroy their 
stronghold, so that future escaped slaves might not find 
an asylum in it ; and the fiction reiterated by the 
Georgians that the Exiles were stolen from them and held 



284 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

by the Seminoles apparently was honestly believed by 
the General. The fort was sixty miles from the Georgia 
border ; and in all the official correspondence there is not 
a word of proof or attempt at proof that the Exiles had 
been stolen ; and what is much more remarkable, there is 
not a specific complaint of any hostile act or depredation 
of the Seminoles or Exiles against the Georgians. 

Mr. Giddings, whose history of this outrage is full and 
searching, was for many years a member of Congress from 
Ohio, and a man of force and ability. His statements 
have never been refuted, nor even (except as to his senti- 
ments and comments) seriously challenged. He says of 
this raid : " Perhaps no portion of our national history 
exhibits such disregard of international law as this unpro- 
voked invasion of Florida. Who authorized any Ameri- 
can official to dictate to Spanish officials as to their 
forts .? " It was, in plain words, rank buccaneering, par- 
ticipated in by the United States army at the instiga- 
tion of greedy slave-jobbers. War was declared by the 
Executive without consulting Congress, and that body 
uttered no word of protest. 

Another remarkable thing about it was that the people 
of the United States were ignorant of what was done. It 
was represented by the press as a campaign for the punish- 
ment of predatory Indians ; and even historians, as a rule, 
have failed to explain the true object. It was the begin- 
ning of the Seminole wars which lasted many years and 




Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines 

The renowned hnirens-Jlt tgant 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 285 

wore out the patience and resources of the government, 
cost millions of treasure, and thousands of lives. Yet 
there are voluminous histories of those campaigns that do 
not mention the real cause that led up to them. General 
Jackson cannot be held alone responsible. He had his 
instructions from the Secretary of War ; and Commodore 
Patterson, who cooperated by sea, had his from the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, both in regular order. Not even did 
these orders recite any hostile acts as having been com- 
mitted by the Exiles. 

The invading force was placed under the command of 
Colonel Clinch. As he advanced into their country the 
Exiles (now mainly descendants of the original refugees, 
their chief crime consisting in their parents having been 
slaves) fled to the fort, the walls of which were eighteen 
feet high and twelve feet thick. In it was much valuable 
property. Its site had been well chosen for repelling at- 
tacks, and into it now were crowded warriors, women, and 
children. Three gunboats under sailing-master Loomis 
came up the bay to assist in the attack. Loomis and 
Clinch did not agree as to the methods to be pursued, the 
latter having very little heart for wanton destruction of 
lives. Like Gaines, he was in later life one of the few 
outspoken advocates of justice to the unfortunates now 
suffering at his hands. But he had his orders ; and 
accompanying the regular troops was a company of Creeks, 
foes of the Seminoles, who were enlisted in the service with 



286 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the agreement that they should share in the plunder. 
This plunder was expected to be mainly human beings. 

The attack on Fort Nichols had at first little effect. 
Even the heavy shot from the gunboats did not penetrate 
its walls ; but after some hours of firing one reached the 
powder magazine in which there was a large storage, and 
the explosion that followed was fiendish in its havoc. 
There were three hundred and thirty-four souls in the 
fort. Of these, two hundred and seventy were sent 
instantly to eternity ; sixty-one persons were wounded, 
some frightfully mangled, others slightly ; and only three 
escaped injury. 

But this was not all, — perhaps not the worst. Many 
of the sixty-one wounded were delivered over to the Indian 
allies of the white men. It seems incredible that civilized 
beings, Americans, to say nothing of officers of the United 
States army, could ever have done such a devilish thing, 
but the proof is irrefutable. Among the wounded victims 
were some against whom the Creeks had a savage grudge, 
a,nd they took the unfortunate creatures and tortured 
them in the presence of the American soldiers. All who 
were not seriously wounded were enslaved, and the others 
massacred ! 

The enslaved victims were taken to Georgia and, for the 
most part, delivered over to the men, gentlemen planters, 
who claimed to be the heirs of those who, two and three 
generations previously, owned, as alleged, the ancestors of 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 287 

the captives ! Deliveries were made on simple claim, with- 
out proof before court or magistrate, or any other formality, 
no evidences of identity, or even of descent. It was a 
transaction of honor! May we not pardon Congressman 
Giddings for showing a slight " prejudice " in his book ? 

Perhaps we should be prepared for the wave of execra- 
tion that must sweep the land, especially because of the 
employment of the United States army and navy in such 
inhuman business. But nobody seems to have raised a 
voice. It was not advertised. The people in the South 
approved, and those in the North knew hardly anything 
about it. Twenty-two years afterward a bill was in- 
troduced in Congress appropriating $5000 to the officers 
and men of the navy who participated in this slave- 
catching campaign — a campaign marked by as hideous 
savagery in warfare as any in American history, between 
either savage or civilized races — as special compensation 
for their " gallant services " ! 

Startling to relate, the bill was favorably reported by 
Ingham of Connecticut, chairman of the committee on 
naval affairs ; no opposition was raised, and it passed. 
*' The people of the United States paid that bonus for the 
perpetration of one of the darkest crimes which stains 
the history of any civilization."" Perhaps it may lessen the 
wonder if one recollects that at the time it was considered 
very bad form to agitate in Congress any question relating 
to slavery, for fear of injuring somebody's sensitive feelings. 



288 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

About one-third of all the Exiles in Florida perished or 
were reenslaved. Practically the first that the country 
heard about the invasion was when the subject came to be 
debated in Congress. The ablest members of that body, 
and the ablest supporters of the administration, taxed their 
ingenuity and brought their highest powers of rhetoric 
into play in vindication of those concerned in the outrage. 
No action was taken by Congress. It was twenty years 
later when the full facts were published by William Jay, 
of New York. 

The Seminole and Exile survivors, believing they would 
be attacked again, prepared for war. They bought arms 
of the Spaniards and the English, and drilled in companies 
along the Georgia frontier. They were given time to 
raise and gather a crop, as no further motion was made 
against them till November, 1817. Then a Lieutenant 
Scott and about forty men, making a journey along the 
Apalachicola for the protection of American settlers, as 
alleged, were attacked. They had with them a number 
of women and children, and all were slain. Not a soldier 
survived. One woman only was taken prisoner. 

Now this outrage was heralded over the whole country. 
The land was in a flame of indignation over the atrocity. 
No reference was made to the previous campaign and its 
slaughter. On the contrary, the President, in a proclama- 
tion, said of the Seminoles " the hostilities of this tribe 
were unprovoked " ; and, " as almost the whole of this 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 289 

tribe inhabit the country within the limits of Florida, 
Spain is bound by the treaty of 1795 to restrain them 
from committing depredations against the United States.*" 

The army was now sent to prosecute the war. Jackson 
was ordered to the field, and to call out the militia of 
Tennessee and Georgia. Congress quickly made an ap- 
propriation, and every orator proclaimed the cause of the 
war as the Scott massacre. The authors cited herein 
assert that the record does not show one of them to have 
mentioned the wanton massacre of the slave-catching in- 
vasion of the year before as having anything to do with 
it. The initiative and blame were all laid to the simple 
people in the jungle who had acted in self- protection. 

General Jackson marched into Florida with three thou- 
sand men — one thousand regulars and two thousand 
volunteers, including Creek auxiliaries. He drove the 
Seminoles before him to Fort St. Mark, and captured it. 
An American gunboat in Apalachicola Bay hoisted a British 
flag as a decoy, enticed two Seminole chiefs on board by the 
deception, and Jackson had them hanged. Valiant warfare, 
indeed ! He also hanged two Englishmen, Arbuthnot and 
Armbrister, on the charge of inciting Indians to war. The 
facts concerning the whole wretched business were discred- 
itable to the Americans, and consequently were misrepre- 
sented, — as, for example, the General's letter to the 
Spanish Governor of Pensacola in attempted justification 
of his bringing an American army into Spanish temtory : 

19 



290 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

" Negroes who have fled from their masters, citizens of the 
United States have raised the tomahawk, and in the char- 
acter of savage warfare have spared neither age nor sex. 
Helpless women have been massacred, and the cradle crim- 
soned with blood."" 

Had the General forgotten his ordering troops against 
those people, when they were peaceable and unprepared 
for violence, for the avowed purpose of reenslaving them, 
and the horrible massacres his minions wrought ? The 
time had been too short ! 

After burning a few villages, and in two engagements 
killing a lot of the best men of the Exiles, the army with- 
drew. The Exiles had removed their families and cattle 
to the jungle and could not be followed. It was a practi- 
cal victory for them ; and negroes escaping from Georgia 
continued to swell their numbers. The Georgians, more 
clamorous than before, now agitated for the purchase of 
Florida by the government. The administration had come 
to the conclusion that the only way to abolish the slave 
refuge was to buy the Territory ; and negotiations were 
opened. In February, 1819, the transfer was made, the 
consideration being $5,000,000. Under a new treaty with 
the Creeks the government agreed to pay $250,000 in in- 
stalments for about 5,000,000 acres of their lands, — this 
being another sop to Georgia. Also the United States as- 
sumed the still urgently asserted claims of Georgia against 
the Creeks for payment of slaves " stolen," not to exceed 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 291 

$250,000 ; and Georgia assigned her old claim for Exiles 
to the government to be held in trust for the benefit of 
the Creeks. This in effect made the Exiles the property 
of the United States. 

Treaties, and the terms of treaties, are usually about as 
spirited and interesting reading as a grocer's price-list ; but 
there are a few points about this one that verge on the 
humorous. For instance, the government, having agreed 
to pay the Georgians for slaves not exceeding $250,000, 
made an investigation, and could find but $109,000 due on 
such claims, which was paid. That left $141,000 of the 
appropriation. We must remember, this was in 1819. 
In 1834< the slavers put in a claim for that $141,000 as 
an indemnity, — " for the loss of the offspring which the 
Exiles would have borne to their masters had they re- 
mained in bondage " ! 

But that is not the humorous part of it. The bill was 
approved by Congress without protest and was paid, — for 
children who never were born ! Yet funnier things trans- 
pired. In 1848 the Creeks were paid the $141,000 on a 
claim which they put in for it ; and so the previous pay- 
ment of it to the Georgians turned out to be purely a 
donation to them for being in the slave business. 

Florida was now a part of the United States, the slave 
code of which presumed every black man a slave unless he 
could prove his freedom. No Exile could do this. They 
were now at the mercy of the slave-catcher, who had only 



292 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

to prove ownership of some negro, and have any one seized. 
The government now recognized the Seminoles as a sepa- 
rate tribe, and exacted a stipulation that they should aid 
in preventing the escape of slaves ; and the Indians agreed 
to use all necessary vigilance in apprehending and deliver- 
ing fugitives to the Indian agents, who were to compen- 
sate them. So now their old friends were, nominally 
at least, enemies of the Exiles. The Indian Department, 
through its agents, was becoming a sort of slave-catching 
bureau. 

There were many complications. Sometimes an Indian 
and a white man claimed the same Exile. At another 
time a white dealer would seize a slave belonging to an 
Indian. Sometimes the cunning Indian would entice a 
slave to escape, and then claim him as his own. In 1835 
a driver from Columbus, Georgia, one Milton, laid claim 
to twenty slaves of old Chief Econchattimico. Living on 
the Reservation with these serfs were twenty Exiles who 
had never known slavery. The chief had named them as 
his friends, and a record of it was deposited with the com- 
missioner of Indian affairs. Milton wanted both slaves and 
Exiles, claiming to have bought them of a Creek. The 
claim was denied by the Federal Court. Then Milton sold 
his alleged claim to other man-stealers, who went with 
bloodhounds, manacles, and chains to run the blacks off. 
But the latter were armed by the chief for self-defence. 
Seeing this, and being too cowardly to attack armed 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 293 

negroes, the man-thieves circulated the story that the 
blacks were arming to attack the whites. 

Upon this the militia was marched to the Reservation. 
The old chief explained the cause of the arming — to 
prevent captivity. The militia officers told him it made 
trouble, and by assuring his people protection, induced 
them to give up their arms. Next day all the poor 
wretches were taken by the slavers, marched in chains to 
Georgia, and sold. There was no redress, — negroes had 
no rights. Many similar outrages occurred, and were 
winked at by the government agents — but such things 
really should not be recounted now for fear of stirring 
alive old animosities. 

And besides, it only properly belongs to the story to 
tell what finally became of the Exiles, or Florida Maroons, 
and not go into the ensuing Seminole wars. In 1835, 
the government determined to transport all of the Semi- 
noles and Exiles to the Indian Territory. This they re- 
sisted ; and that brought on the second Seminole War. 
The Exiles now numbered about twelve hundred, besides 
about two hundred slaves belonging to the Indians. They 
retreated far inland, and Generals Scott, Jessup, Arm- 
strong, Call, Taylor, and Worth, in turn, did their utmost 
to hunt them out. They had thousands of troops, but 
they could not find the foe. They also engaged the 
assistance of the Creeks, yet the war was practically a 
failure. Finally, the Seminoles were promised safety if 



294 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

they and their " allies "" would go West. Thus the gov- 
ernment recognized the Exiles as allies of the Indians, and 
General Jessup, who concluded the agreement, so con- 
strued it. 

But the Georgian slave-holders came forward to object. 
To that gentry the war had not been merely to rid 
Florida of savages, but rather to recapture refugee negroes 
for themselves ; and failure in that respect they called " a 
sacrifice of national dignity."" A number of the Exiles 
being caught by them, the Seminoles charged bad faith, 
refused to assemble for removal, and the results of the 
long war were annulled. Then General Taylor refused 
bluntly to continue the work of tracking refugees. The 
troops were disgusted with the service, and well they 
might be ; for a few hundred blacks in the Everglades had 
maintained their liberty against the power of the govern- 
ment and the villanies of the slavers for decades. 

Gradually they were taken in small parties, mainly 
through strategy, and sent to the West. The Exiles in 
some instances were treated as the property of the Semi- 
noles. In other cases, they were given over to slaver 
claimants. The government took one lot of a hundred 
and sold them, then rescinded the action, called them 
prisoners of war, and started them Westward. More than 
five hundred were enslaved between 1835 and 1843, about 
one-half of whom were born free. The remainder were 
gradually absorbed in the Indian tribes. 




General Edmund P. Gaines 

Commander of the Department of the Southwest 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 295 

The hundred which the government sent West were 
reunited with a company of their Seminole relatives at 
New Orleans. Here a slave agent named Collins, acting 
for a Georgia dealer named Watson, appeared with an 
order for the Exiles approved by the government, on the 
claim that they belonged to the Creeks. Another slaver 
named Love laid claim to sixty others who had arrived at 
New Orleans. All these negroes and Indians were under 
the charge and authority of General Gaines, commanding 
the Western military district. Although this last claim 
was approved by a State court, Gaines refused to deliver 
the victims. Other claimants from Georgia arrived. But 
it was difficult to select the negroes, or half-breeds, from 
the Indians ; and besides, the latter grew threatening and 
declared they would fight before submitting to a separa- 
tion. At last, thirty-one negroes were picked out, and 
all remaining of both races were started by boat up river 
for Fort Gibson. Collins followed and overtook them at 
Vicksburg. Here he showed Lieutenant Reynolds, who 
had charge of the emigrants, orders for the negroes 
approved by the President. But Reynolds feared the re- 
sistance of the Indians, and could not comply. Collins 
went with him to Little Rock, where appeal was made to 
the Governor. That official declared there was no way to 
identify negroes claimed by Collins, and advised Reynolds 
to proceed to his destination with his charges. 

Finally they amved in the Indian Territory, and were 



296 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

soon joined by the thirty-one who had been retained at 
New Orleans, and whom General Gaines had succeeded in 
keeping out of the clutches of the slavers. But they had 
no separate lands in the new Territory, and would not 
join the Creeks, their old enemies, as the government 
foolishly expected them to do. At length they settled on 
lands tendered them by the more enlightened Cherokees. 
But they were not to be left in peace. The Creeks were a 
slave-holding nation. They began to claim the Exiles as 
their slaves. The government, under an opinion of the 
attorney-general, refused to protect them. The secret of 
the Creeks' claims was that slave-drivers from the South 
came among them and offered them $100 for each Exile 
they would seize and deliver. 

Under this stimulus the Creeks made a raid on the 
Exiles, and captured several thousand dollars' worth of 
them. The slavers started homeward with these, gang- 
chained in the customary way. The Seminole agent went 
to a judge in Arkansas and obtained a writ of habeas 
corpus for the poor captives. The Exiles were brought 
before him, and he decided that the title of the Creeks 
was " legal and perfect ; and they having sold them to 
the possessor, his title must be good." Upon this odious 
decision the stolen Exiles were taken to the slave mart of 
New Orleans and sold at auction. 

There were yet some hundreds of the Exiles in the In- 
dian Territory. They knew that the same fate hung over 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 297 

them, and that the only way to avoid it was to flee beyond 
the limits of the United States. They decided to emi- 
grate to Mexico, a free country. Some three hundred 
made secret preparation for the long journey, and stole 
away in the night. The Creeks, discovering their depart- 
ure, sent a war party in pursuit, — the Exiles were too 
profitable to let slip away. But the Creeks were de- 
feated, and retreated, leaving their dead on the field ; 
and the Exiles proceeded. In time, they entered Mexico 
and established themselves near the ancient town of Santa 
Rosa, where they found good lands to cultivate. It was 
truly their Canaan. Here they built cabins and planted 
gardens and fields, and, being far from the borders of a 
slave land, one might suppose they had at last found an 
asylum of safety. 

Not so. Planters of Texas learned about them, and 
complained that runaway slaves from that State joined 
the Exiles. On this plea a band of Texan slave-catchers 
made a descent on them ; but it is cheerful to read that it 
returned with diminished numbers, and with no captives. 
But not till slavery was abolished in all America could 
this little community of Exiles, whose struggles form a 
unique chapter in the history of human persecution, feel 
secure in its hard-won liberty. 



CHAPTER XV 



Texans Covet New Mexico — TH-judped Expedition to Santa Fi — 
Mediaeval Warfare — Texans all Prisoners — Predicament of an 
Editor. 

N undertaking in 
the Southwest which 
created an inter- 
national sensation 
some two-thirds of 
a century ago, but 
which has been long 
forgotten, was known 
as the Texan-Santa 
Fe Expedition. Al- 
though set on by 
the highest officials 
of the Republic of 
Texas, it properly 
enough belongs in 
the category of American aggression in that region. 

After Texas secured her independence, she laid claim to 
all the territory east of the Rio Grande up to its source, 
although the maps were not nearly unanimous as to where 
that was. The Mexican government never admitted it, 




THE GLORY SEEKERS 299 

and maintained sovereignty over the whole of New Mexico. 
If there was anything among the necessities of men or 
nations which Texas did not require during the years 
following her independence, it was more land. Only a 
small fraction of her territory was occupied, except by 
savages. Indeed, she did not know how extensive her 
possessions were, leaving out of the problem her claim to 
the Rio Grande, as her northern boundaries were ill- 
defined. 

Besides this, the new republic was weak in everything 
— population, ready resources, and means of defence 
against both civilized and savage enemies. She was in 
debt, the revenues were inadequate, and her situation was 
anything but secure. Yet among the first things the 
Texans did was to plan for conquest. It seemed to be 
such a natural occupation to be clashing with Mexico that 
they were uneasy when not at it. So a bill was intro- 
duced in both Houses of their Congress for fitting out an 
expedition to be directed against New Mexico. 

Congress ah'eady had too many appropriations to pro- 
vide for, and did not adopt the bill. Yet most of the 
public officials favored the enterprise, and Mirabeau B. 
Lamar, then President, undertook to forward it. General 
Lamar had come from Mississippi, knew the history of all 
former buccaneering expeditions in the Southwest, and had 
been a prominent fighter for the Texas separation. The 
full scope of his scheme is doubtful. But that he placed 



300 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the expedition on a war footing is disproof of the later 
contention that it was intended to be entirely pacific. 

It was an ill-judged and audacious project. The expe- 
dition was poorly equipped, its organization was ineffi- 
cient, and its management from start to final disaster 
showed no ability, either military or executive. In fact, 
the discomfiture of the Texans is relieved from the ludi- 
crous only by the severity of their humiliation and 
sufferings. 

To begin with, there was trouble in financing the enter- 
prise, which made it two months late in setting off, — a 
fatal error. It started from Austin, June 21, 1841, and 
consisted of three hundred and twenty men, of which 
two hundred and seventy were enlisted for arms ; the 
remainder included three commissioners appointed by the 
President, scouts, servants, and several traders who went 
with a caravan of merchandise intended for the Santa 
Fe market. All were heavily armed and mounted. The 
soldiers were uniformed with dragoon jackets and caps. 
The armament included one six-pounder brass cannon. 
The caravan numbered twenty-four wagons, each drawn 
by three or four yoke of oxen. The organization was in 
six companies under Captains Caldwell, Sutton, Houghton, 
Hudson, Strain, and Lewis. The commander was General 
McLeod, while William G. Cooke, R. F. Brenham, and 
J. A. Navarro composed the President's commission to the 
people of New Mexico. 




MiRABEAU B. Lamar 

President of Texas 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 301 

So far as ever was admitted by the Texans, the objects 
of the movement were all set forth in Lamar's proclama- 
tion to the New Mexicans, many copies of which the com- 
missioners took along for distribution. It declared that 
Texas considered her territory rightfully to extend to the 
Rio Grande, and said to the people of Santa Fe that 
the merchants of Texas desired to open up commerce 
with them ; that if they, the people, desired to share 
the blessings of the new republic, if they were willing to 
submit to the laws of Texas and acknowledge her juris- 
diction, arrangements would gladly be made to extend 
such control over them. Otherwise, friendly commer- 
cial relations only would be established. The expedition 
was not to attempt the subjugation of the country by 
violence. 

That is what President Lamar's proclamation said. 
But there were many besides the Mexicans who believed it 
to be the real intention to subjugate the country ; peace- 
ably, if so it could be done, otherwise by interesting the 
inhabitants in trade, and then, when occasion was ripe, by 
a military coup. It was even declared by some that 
Lamar was aided and abetted by slavery interests, and 
that sovereignty over all the territory to the Pacific was 
their final goal. The ablest American historians have 
since placed that construction upon it. But whatever 
were the real intentions, those set out in the proclamation 
were a clear notification to the New Mexican officials that 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the bearers of it had designs on their territory. And 
when it was accompanied by a heavily armed military 
force, those officials did not allow a few wagon-loads of 
merchandise to deceive them. That President Lamar or 
any sane Texan could have supposed that those officials or 
the Mexican government would, with the animosities ex- 
isting between the two countries because of the late wars, 
submit amicably to such an attempt on their possessions, 
is impossible of belief. If they did, it was a striking 
example of human credulity. 

At the setting out of the aggregation they were all 
(save one man) Texans. Later, when in sorry captivity, 
many of them claimed to be citizens or subjects of other 
governments, whose protection they sought. Among 
these there were, of course, a number of Americans — citi- 
zens of the United States. Some of them, it is fair to 
credit, did not understand the real objects of the adven- 
ture. The most important personality among these was 
George Wilkins Kendall, who, after his return, wrote a two- 
volume history of the expedition, from which this story 
is largely derived. Kendall was a Vermonter who went 
South and established the New Orleans Picayune. Feeling 
the need of applying a bracer to his constitution, he 
planned a trip through Mexico ; and learning of this expe- 
dition, decided to go by way of Santa Fe, and joined it as 
a guest. He had a passport from the Mexican consul at 
New Orleans, and a letter fi'om President Lamar stating 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 303 

that he was a traveller and in no way connected with the 
enterprise ; a precaution which, in itself, indicates grave 
doubts as to the kind of reception with which they might 
meet. 

Mr. Kendall asserts that the expedition was unique; 
that no previous attempt had been made on this continent 
to cross one thousand miles of wilderness and mountains, 
including hundreds of miles of alkali desert unknown to 
white men, infested with savages, seared by many rivers 
and canons, yet with vast stretches devoid of water. 
When the first wagon-train started from St. Louis for 
Santa Fe, every part of the route had been thoroughly 
traversed. But Mr. Kendall was not quite exact in the 
statement, as a company of American merchants at Chi- 
huahua the previous year made an experimental journey 
from that city to the United States, with a train of eighty 
wagons. They came by El Paso and through " the cross 
timbers," spending five months in cutting through that 
fearful wilderness. Incidentally, it may be noted that on 
their return an American circus, full-panoplied, made the 
long journey with this caravan, and successfully toured 
the Mexican cities. 

At the time of the Texan expedition there was no civili- 
zation northwest of Austin, whence it started. The idea 
was to follow the Brazos River northerly, penetrate the 
" cross timbers" to the Red River, and follow that water- 
course, which was supposed to run nearly east and west. 



304 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

This would make the route somewhat on the line of a 
right angle and longer, but would keep them close to the 
water supply. It is astonishing that such an expedition 
should set off without guides who had been through the 
territory to be traversed, but so it did. Rowland, the 
chief guide, had been in New Mexico, but not by that 
way. 

They expected to reach Santa Fe in six weeks or two 
months. But they had been out only a few days when the 
wagons began to break down. It shows the carelessness 
of preparation when it is stated that many of them were 
old, and all were much too heavily loaded. It looked 
much as though they expected to find macadamized turn- 
pikes. A spy company was kept a day in advance to point 
the best route and find water, — and always to look out for 
Indians. Three days brought them into the buffalo lands, 
where were millions of the beasts (estimated), and they 
had the exciting sport of the chase, as well as the savory 
roasts resulting. These saved the beef cattle, a large herd 
of which was driven along for the subsistence of the train. 
No bread supplies were taken along, and that privation 
was severely felt by many. 

When they reached the valley of the Brazos they found 
it like the land of Eshcol ; and though the grapes may 
not have been quite so large, there were, besides, plums and 
other fruit in profusion. Every species of timber known 
in Texas grew there, flanked by rich prairies teeming 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 305 

with elk, turkeys, and other game. There were spark- 
ling streams of pure water alive with trout, and honey in 
almost every hollow tree. To make this natural paradise 
complete, there was no Indian " sign." However, the water 
of the Brazos was brackish, and the river difficult to cross 
because of quicksands. But beyond they found further 
comforts at the sites of former Indian encampments. Here 
were examples of Nature's farming, unassisted. Com, 
melons, and pumpkins were growing and ripening from 
accidental seeds. Cherokee and other Indians had formerly 
cultivated patches on the Upper Brazos, — it was now a 
sort of lazy man's Elysium. 

All this was changed when they struck into the " cross 
timbers." This was a dreary wilderness of gnarled black-' 
jack and post-oak, with an almost inpenetrable under- 
growth of thorns ; the stony soil was alive with poisonous 
reptiles, and gashed with hideous gullies. Now was 
experienced also the first water famine. To make head- 
way through this desolate jungle the wagons had to be 
lightened. The camp officers decided to throw away their 
supply of dried beef, which had mostly spoiled, and to 
sacrifice the tents. All were thrown away or burned, 
those belonging to the officers as well, only the hospital 
tent being retained. 

Fatigue parties went ahead to cut a passage through 
tangles and gorges. The heat was torrid. Drivers and 
fatigue-men were worn out, and with their raging thirst 



306 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

became ugly-tempered. The cattle were worse. Some 
refused to work, or were unable to ; wagons were over- 
turned, and blasphemy, which had been cultivated as an 
art from the set-ofF, developed proportionately. In fine, 
the command was uncontrollable, and scattered in all 
directions at will, seeking water and a way out of the 
hideous timbers. Kendall observes that on all marches 
where there is no water there is no discipline. Men and 
animals simply go wild. 

A stifling day was followed by a hot but cloudy night. 
The sky grew black, and all hoped for torrents, but only 
a few drops fell to tantalize the suffering band. The 
storm was mainly wind and thunder ; and the thick dark- 
ness prevented a night journey which had been planned 
in the hope of cooler atmosphere. The third day they 
worked out of this nightmare of a wilderness and came to 
a stream which renewed their life. 

Before this the lack of equipment had been further 
emphasized by the certainty that not enough beeves had 
been sent along, and a flying squadron had to be sent 
back for more. This added somewhat to the delay. 
Now, on August 10, they began to grope for the proper 
route, and were deceived by a Mexican in the company 
who said he had trapped in that quarter, knew the 
ground, and that they were only seventy or eighty miles 
away from San Miguel. No one, strange to say, knew 
any better, although they were in fact more than five 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 307 

times that distance from the town named. But assuming 
that the Mexican was right, McLeod sent a deputation 
composed of Guide Rowland and two assistants, Baker 
and Rosenberry, ahead to San Miguel for the purpose of 
securing supplies and sounding the inhabitants on the 
proposal of the proclamation. 

The expedition could not find the Red River. It was 
lost in the dry grass. Their hunger was dreadful, and 
their thirst was maddening. The streams they found 
were salt and brackish. While the cattle seemed to 
like the water, the men could not drink it. Indians fol- 
lowed them, cutting off and killing several of the com- 
pany. To search for water was a risk of life ; not to do 
so seemed certain death. Many took the chance, Mr. 
Kendall being one. 

Another danger beset them and threatened their an- 
nihilation. As Kendall and a companion were drinking 
at a brackish creek in a desolate valley some miles from 
the caravan, they were startled by a loud report. At 
first they supposed the command had been attacked by 
Indians and had turned the cannon on them. But imme- 
diately they saw a great prairie fire. It leaped down the 
sides of the rugged hills through the stunted cedars, the 
tops of which cracked with the heat like the rattle of 
musketry. By taking their course along ground already 
burnt over, they met comrades who told them that 
an ammunition wagon had been caught in the flames 



308 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

and blown up. The explosion destroyed much personal 
property, and the whole caravan looked for a time to be 
doomed ; but heroic efforts saved the rest of it. 

They were now much worse off than before, yet not 
destitute. All their mess and culinary utensils were 
destroyed, as was also much clothing. Everybody was 
suffering, and none knew which way to turn. All move- 
ments were experimental, and invariably led to frightful 
gullies, blackened valleys, and impassable chasms. Bullets 
were carried in the mouth to allay thirst. Pieces of raw- 
hide similarly used were found more effective, as also 
were pods of mesquit trees when chewed. Coming to a 
mountain barrier, they were compelled to return to a 
stream which they had left several days before. Rations 
were reduced from three pounds to half that each day. 
The discovery of prairie-dog villages afforded them some 
fresh meat, although the animals were shy and hard to 
kill — or rather, hard to secure, as they would usually 
tumble down their burrows when shot. Game had van- 
ished, and the men were all but mutinous. 

The officers now held a council and determined to divide 
the command. Ninety-nine mounted men in command of 
Captains Sutton and Lewis were sent forward unencum- 
bered with baggage, except rations for a few days, with a 
view of finding New Mexican settlements. These were be- 
lieved to be not more than eighty or one hundred miles 
distant. Kendall went with this advance division, as did 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 309 

also a physician, Brenham, and an engineer, Hunt. It set 
off August 31. 

As our historian went with the advance detachment, 
which was destined to find earlier excitement than the 
other, we prefer to leave the caravan beside the braclcish 
stream in the barrens and follow him. The ninety and 
nine set out through that forbidding and apparently 
limitless stretch of desolation called the Llano Estacado, 
although not one of them was aware they were entering 
that forbidding desert. They supposed themselves over 
in New Mexico on the margin of civilization. 

After travelling two or three days they came to a tre- 
mendous gash in the earth. It ran through a compara- 
tively level land, and was not seen until they were upon 
the brink of it. It was about eight hundred feet wide, and 
nearly a thousand feet deep. The sides were almost per- 
pendicular. Nothing but workable flying-machines could 
have taken them over. As for going around it, one might 
as well have sought to go around Brazos River, — at least, 
so it seemed. Yet they followed it along southward, and 
began to discern converging animal trails which they 
rightly guessed led to a crossing-place. But when they 
arrived at the descent they were appalled by the steep and 
rough path that led down into the mighty gorge. Some 
of the horses refused the venture at first, and had to be 
fairly pushed onward. It was a dangerous feat, but they 
reached the bottom in safety, and found the trail up the 



310 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

opposite side. Nearly a day was consumed in making the 
crossing, but they met with no fatalities. 

Within a day or two they came to another canon of 
about the same width and depth, and managed to cross it 
in the same manner. After this the cavalcade found it- 
self in a rocky, barren country, exceedingly hard to travel 
over, and destitute of game. League after league through 
the dreary waste they saw no living creature. Their 
meat spoiled, and they threw much of it away. Soon they 
were without food. There was even short pickings for 
their animals. For several days the men starved. It 
appeared to them that they had wandered into a parched 
and withered world to perish. 

Finally, in a desperate hour they sighted a small party of 
Mexicans who were returning from a trading trip to the 
Indians. From them they ascertained that they were only 
four days' travel from their main party, although they had 
wandered thirteen days since separating from it. They had 
taken wrong courses, and should have avoided the caiions. 
So much for ignorance. They also learned that they were 
only about forty miles from a Mexican sheep ranch. 

Engaging two of the Mexican traders, they sent one of 
their own party with them back to the caravan to guide 
it through the mountain pass. They also sent three or 
four of their number whose horses were the least jaded to 
ride in advance to the sheep ranch and prepare dressed 
meat against the coming of the others the following day. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 811 

When they all got there, those ninety-eight famished men 
found seventeen thousand sheep at that ranch, and started 
in to eat them. The best they could do at the first sit- 
ting was to consume twenty. Nothing discouraged, they 
buckled to it again the next morning, having a divine 
adjunct to the mutton in a goafs milk and flour mush, 
called atole con leche. They were excellent customers of 
those herdsmen for two or three days. The shepherds 
were a primitive lot, with crooks like those in the Bible 
pictures. They would have been pleased if the Americans 
had remained with them. 

But the travellers learned bad news. The shepherds said 
the country was in arms ; that the invasion of the Texan 
had been heralded through all the towns ; that Guide 
Rowland and his two aids, who had been despatched ahead 
by General McLeod, were prisoners at Santa Fe. But then, 
all Mexicans were called consummate liars, and nobody 
believed a word of it. Certainly they were not frightened, 
for Captain Lewis and George Van Ness, the latter the 
secretary to the commissioners, were appointed to advance 
to San Miguel to confer with the authorities. Both spoke 
Spanish fluently. They were to announce the coming 
of a large trading-party, and for proof of it they carried 
copies of Lamar''s proclamation inviting the people to 
revolt against Mexico ! So sure were they of a generous 
welcome that three others, Kendall, Howard, and Fitz- 
gerald, accompanied the two delegates. 



312 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

Now in those days there was a Governor in New Mexico 
whose name was Armijo. He was a selfish, suspicious, 
cruel, and tyrannical man, feared by the people over whom 
he ruled much like an absolute monarch. When Governor 
Armijo heard Texas had sent an expedition against the 
Territory, he issued a proclamation declaring it was coming 
for conquest, and that the Texans would burn, kill, and en- 
slave ! The simple people believed him, — they had heard 
terrible things about the Texans since San Jacinto. 

Unfearful of all this, the delegates' party of five pushed 
bravely on. At the village of Anton Chico they fared 
sumptuously on a menu of tortillas, boiled eggs, and mieli 
— the latter a syrup made from common cornstalks. 
They lodged there, and at midnight were awakened by a 
vagabondish fellow who told them they were to be taken 
prisoners by an approaching army and shot the next day. 
He charged them a dollar for the information, which they 
refused to pay, not considering that he had earned the 
money. The Mexican wondered, no doubt, what kind of 
a bill of horrors they would expect for a dollar's worth. 

But others gave them warning also, and a spy from the 
advancing army kindly gave them information as to the 
road, sending them a most dangerous way. Piratical look- 
ing scouts were seen along the cliffs, yet those trusting men 
were unsuspicious that any real danger was near. 

Beyond Gallinas the party of five was surrounded by a 
company of Mexicans under Colonel Salazar, a " miscreant '' 










George Wilkins Kendall 

Historian of the Texas-Santa Fe Expedition 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 313 

who politely informed the delegation that it could not 
expect to enter the Territory armed ; that he had been 
ordered by his superiors to demand their weapons, each 
piece of which he said would be labelled so there would be 
no trouble in identification upon their being returned. 
He hoped they would not object, as it was a disagreeable 
request for him to make of gentlemen, at the best. 

None of the party liked it very well, but their explana- 
tions carried no conviction. Mr. Kendall showed his pass- 
port proving his American citizenship, also his letter from 
President Lamar declaring he was travelling as a guest with 
the expedition. Neither did these convince. All five had 
to give up their arms ; and at last they began to suspect 
that they were not going to fare altogether pleasantly. 
Mr. Kendall clearly showed impatience; his account says 
that he detected " a wicked gleam in the cowardly man's 
eye "" when, with his " myrmidons " around him, he took 
such a mean advantage of them. 

Then Salazar demanded all of their papers and valuables. 
He was such a " miscreant " that he showed even a more 
gentle delicacy in this demand. He regretted deeply to 
incommode them, yet such were his orders. It really 
pained him to execute them. " It was hard to detect the 
deep treachery and atrocious designs lying under an ap- 
pearance so apparently fair," sighs Mr. Kendall in bewail- 
ing such moral obliquity. Everything was taken except 
their money, and that, the author declares, was left to 



314 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

them only because the robbers overlooked it ; which shows 
his growing prejudice. Their effects were tied up in neat 
little handkerchief bundles and also labelled. 

Now came the order that pained the sensitive Colonel 
Salazar most of all. He really could not apologize suffi- 
ciently for it, — such disagreeable transactions between 
gentlemen ! Would they please line up — not too close 
together? They obeyed, — nothing so very objectionable 
about that. Then the colonel, suddenly losing somewhat 
of his affability, gave an order to a captain, who brought 
up a file of soldiers which paraded in front and stood at 
arms. This file was captained by " an abandoned wretch " 
with the title and cognomen of Don Jesus, which shocked 
the goodly wayfarers by its circumstantial blasphemy. But 
this shock was at once relieved by another. Would the 
gentlemen please be blindfolded? 

They were to be shot ! 

It was not till now that the Americans — for purposes 
of the narrative the terms Americans and Texans may 
be used synonymously — fairly woke up to their danger. 
They were men of the world, of varied experience, and 
more than one of them was acquainted not only with 
the Mexican character, but with the character of the 
men engaged in protecting things in that Territory. 
Yet they, and all the leaders of the expedition, seem 
to have exhibited a simple-mindedness almost infantile. 
They walked into the web in instalments as artlessly as 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 315 

any fly into the spider's parlor. Kendall was a traveller 
and a successful journalist; Fitzgerald had seen military 
service in Spain ; Lewis had done business in Chihuahua, 

— and here they stood like a lot of dunces before a polite 
request to be blindfolded for execution. 

Fitzgerald was the first to read the unpropitious signs. 
It was a moment of dramatic intensity. Captain Lewis 
glanced the order down the line, and Kendall says that, 
without a spoken word, every man felt and understood. 
They must seize the muskets fi'om the file of executioners 

— a motley lot of weaklings — and strike for an escape. 
But now arose a quarrel between Salazar and a citizen 
who proved to be Don Gregorio Vigil, a man of wealth 
and influence. He objected to having men shot who 
came with letters and requests to see the Governor. The 
Americans supported Don Gregorio with warnings to 
Salazar of the consequences, should he murder them ; and 
the colonel changed his mind. 

Being thus reprieved, the captives were marched on 
foot to San Miguel in charge of the captain of blasphem- 
ous name. Salazar moved on for more prisoners. On 
the way the five were treated kindly at villages through 
which they passed. The inhabitants, especially the 
women, showed real compassion and supplied them with 
bread and cheese. The newspaper man tells it himself 
that now he had to throw bread away. He had become 
so hungry for it that at the first village he bought 



316 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

enough for a month, really thinking he would eat it all ; 
yet he was going into a country where he could get it 
every day. He fed it to his horse before that good friend 
was taken from him. But the quantity they ate, or the 
change in diet, made them ill, and the walk of fifteen 
miles to San Miguel, together with wading cold streams, 
made the party wretched. 

At San Miguel they were shut up in a sort of hole 
and fed on tortillas, which they did not relish. A kind 
priest sent them generous bowls of hot coffee, and that 
helped. All clothing except what they wore had been 
taken, and the chill winds made them long for blankets 
and coats. Besides, they had to sleep on the hard 
earthen floor, and suffered intensely. They begged of the 
alcalde for covering. He heeded not, but a poor woman 
who overheard brought them her blanket and buffalo 
robe — all she had — out of pity. Kendall bought 
another blanket for an English sovereign, and thus they 
made a bed for five. 

Next morning they bought a sheep and hired it cooked. 
The priest sent coffee again. A woman, seeing their 
illness, brought them a bottle of brandy ; others, cheese 
and frijoles. Yet Kendall observes : " We were now in 
the power of men who possess all the vices of savage life 
without one of the virtues that civilization teaches, — 
cruel, relentless, and treacherous, who looked upon us as 
heretics."" 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 317 

Before reaching Santa Fe they met more troops, and 
had to submit to being tied by the wrists with a lariat. 
Kendall and Howard, being ill and lame, were excepted, 
although they were made to walk with hands folded on 
their breasts as a sign of submission. Kendall resents it 
in his book in these words : " Never shall I forget that 
Don Jesus ! He had a coarse, dark, hang-dog face, a 
black but vicious eye, a head which I am phrenologist 
enough to know was as destitute of the organs of benev- 
olence and the better attributes of our nature as outer 
darkness is of light ; and if he had a heart at all, it legiti- 
mately belonged to a hyena ! " 

During this march the guard entertained them with 
descriptions of how they would be executed as soon as the 
Governor got them. They met about one thousand troops 
that day, on the way to receive the Texans. In the even- 
ing at sunset a trumpet blast announced the approach 
of the mighty Governor. There was a great parade of 
spearsmen and ragged musketeers, and then, in a breathless 
moment, loomed forth his dread Excellency on a sunburst 
mule. For an instant it were hard to say which splendor 
was the more dazzling, the panoply of the mule, or the 
august rider. 

General Armijo was in truth an impressive personage, 
six feet high, portly, and possessed of a fine military car- 
riage. He rode straight to the prisoners, spoke politely, 
shook each one by the hand, called them amigos, and asked 



318 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

who they were. Lewis made the cowardly reply that they 
were merchants from the United States. Armijo grasped 
him by the collar of his dragoon jacket and said sternly : 

" What does this mean ? Do you think I cannot read ? 
Texas ! " 

At the same time he pointed to the State name and the 
ione star on the brass buttons. 

" You need not think you can deceive me ! " continued 
Armijo, fiercely. "I can read. No merchant from the 
United States travels in a Texan military jacket ! " 

Then Armijo asked about the main body of the caravan ; 
how many, and where they were. Van Ness, secretary to 
the commissioners, now answered truthfully, and asked 
exemption for Kendall. Armijo read the latter's passport, 
pronounced it good, but said he was in the company of 
invadiniT enemies of New Mexico and must be held for 
further information. All of which may appear much more 
reasonable to us than it did to Mr. Kendall. 

Being done with his questionings, the Governor inquired 
for the captive who was most fluent in Spanish, — he 
wanted him for an interpreter. Lewis now pressed for- 
ward again in an eager way, and as he was the best, he 
was chosen. He was untied and given a mule to ride ; and 
that was the beginning of a most despicable treachery, for 
it may be stated now that Lewis turned traitor, and for 
his own advantage aided in condemning and robbing his 
comrades. Kendall says (one can excuse his intemperate 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 319 

words in this case, at least) : " As soon as he saw that hy 
betraying his former associates, those who often had be- 
friended him, he might gain life and liberty, he at once 
surrendered all the holy ties of religion, honor, companion- 
ship, and patriotism ! " 

None then suspected him, either. 

Arraijo then ordered the captives back to San Miguel 
that night. " The wretch, Don Jesus," showed his vil- 
lany by interceding for them, saying they had walked 
thirty miles that day and would hardly be able to return. 
But the Governor was inexorable, exclaiming : 

" The Texans are an active people ! I know them ! 
If one of them pretends to be sick or tired, shoot him 
and bring me his ears ! Go ! "" 

On the road back that terrible night, Kendall hired half 
of a donkey, the owner riding the other and hinder half. 
At midnight a rainstorm and darkness the shade of tar 
necessitated a halt, and they slept on the earth in the 
downpour till morning. 

When they finally arrived again at San Miguel the 
place was filled with troops. There were several old pieces 
of artillery drawn by oxen. The four captives were im- 
prisoned, when there came to them a priest who said he 
was to give absolution to the one who was to be shot. 
This was interesting ; but they soon leai'ned the doomed 
man was Baker, one of the Rowland deputation of three 
which McLeod first despatched ahead. He was led out in 



320 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

the little square, blinded, placed on his knees facing the 
wall, and shot in the back by a detail of six soldiers. The 
latter were raw fellows, excited or nervous, and fired wildly. 
The victim writhed upon the ground till a corporal walked 
up with a pistol for the mercy shot, which he delivered so 
close that the dying man's shirt took fire and burned while 
he expired. 

The four others were then marched out in a line near 
where the executed man lay. Had their last hour come 
also? They did not know. Left standing there, they 
observed themselves before an open window in the upper 
story of an adjoining building. At this window ap- 
peared Armijo. They saw him talking as if convers- 
ing with some one near him, but they could not see 
the person, nor could they hear. Still they stood in 
terrible suspense, and at last the Governor came out and 
addressed them : " Gentlemen, you told me the truth 
yesterday. Your companion, Howland, corroborates 
you. But he (Howland) tried to escape, was recaptured, 
and is to be shot. So you see what the penalty is for 
trying to escape ! " 

With that the unfortunate Howland was marched out. 
He had a wound on one side of his head and face too 
frightful for description, "yet he smiled at his com- 
panions with the other side." He was shot in the same 
manner as was his comrade. 

Armijo said these things were the necessities of a war 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 321 

that had been thrust upon him. The Texans could not 
plead entire innocence, for they had, in the candor of later 
judgment, undertaken a rash, unjust invasion. Yet it 
seems strange that at a day so recent as to be remembered 
by men still living, such sickening barbarism was practised 
under the name of " warfare " by civilized, Christian 
people ! 

Armijo was a mixture of Robespierre and Sitting Bull. 
The ragged and half-armed rabble around him was called 
" the rural militia,"" It had captured Rowland after des- 
perately wounding him. Rosenberry was killed. It v/as 
now sent after the ninety-four remaining of the advance 
corps, which was commanded by Colonel Cooke, near 
Anton Chico. The Governor did not go forward with his 
army, but made ready to fly to Mexico with his valuables 
if it should be beaten. 

Mr. Kendall and the Texans reiterate that Armijo was 
a blood-stained coward ; that his people secretly hated 
him, and were held loyal only by fear; that they longed 
for annexation with Texas, and that ignorance and timid- 
ity only prevented them from throwing off the Mexican 
" yoke." This is doubtful ; and besides, it cannot in all 
fairness be said that the conduct of the Texans offered 
them any encouragement. 

The advance division was surrounded by nearly a 
thousand troops. Salazar sent word to Cooke that if he 
and his men would give up their arms, the Governor would 

21 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

make amicable aiTangements with them. Aslied about 
the delegation, he answered that it had been courteously 
received, and Seiior Kendall allowed to proceed on his 
journey. Then Lewis, the renegade, came and said a 
force of four thousand troops were ready to fight. He 
was suspected, but pledged his masonic faith and his 
honor. So Cooke capitulated. 

On went the Mexicans and met the caravan, or main 
body of the invaders. That division was induced to sur- 
render all arms under similar representations. And now 
the whole warlike expedition of Texans, with the prowess 
of being terrible fighters, had been neatly taken in with- 
out their having fired a shot. 

In the meantime the four " delegates " remained in 
prison. Guards kept cheering them with assurances that 
they would all be shot if the whole expedition did not 
surrender ; and as they felt certain their three hundred 
and more comrades would fight to the last arroyo it kept 
them thinking even more than they otherwise would have 
of the scene in the square. But finally there was a great 
rejoicing of the populace — loud " vivas'" of "Long live 
the Mexican republic!" "Long live brave Armijo ! " 
" Death to the Texans ! ■" together with bell-ringing, gun- 
firing, and trumpet-blasting. Besides which, Te Deum 
was sung in the church, and a grotesque puppet, an effigy 
of San Miguel, patron saint of the town, was paraded in 
feathered finery, "amidst hellish orgies and cabalistic 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 32S 

sounds," as Mr. Kendall unappreciatively declared. But 
did it show that the people were at heart anxious for 
Texan sovereignty ? 

With the exception of chinches, the vermin pest of all 
Mexican prisons, the four were not uncomfortable. The 
people were kind, especially the women. Girls brought 
them chile guisado^ atole, miel, eggs, tortillas, and frijoles, 
which they were bound to eat or wound the donors' feelings, 
which was out of the question. It was an odd kink of 
fate that, whereas a short time before they had nearly died 
by starving, they now had to eat about a dozen meals a 
day, and suffered about as much from overgorging. 

And now occurred the theatrical climax of the capture. 
The Texans arrived, caravan and men. All were worn 
and haggard. Would they be liberated ? Some were so 
foolish as to suppose they would be. But only a gunsmith, 
a blacksmith, a musician, and the hospital steward were 
set free, and those only because the Governor wanted their 
services. The loads of merchandise were unpacked under 
the supervision of Armijo himself, with Lewis at his elbow. 
As the bales were opened the contents were divided among 
the warriors. The most valuable Lewis claimed, and those 
were set aside to be divided between him and Armijo. 
This was one of the rewards for his treachery. The other 
Texans never got a whistle. 

This done, Armijo held a council of war, in the hearing 
of the prisoners, as to what disposition should be made of 



324 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

them. Some argued loudly for the execution of the whole 
captive force. Others advised that they be sent to Mexico 
City as a trophy of New Mexican arms. The Americans 
took notice, — those who understood Spanish. It was an 
interesting debate for other reasons than the oratory. At 
length the officers agreed to decide the question by a vote 
— viva voce. The roll was called — it ran so close that 
the Texans began to count time by heart-throbs. And 
when the result was announced they were saved by a ma- 
jority of one ! — saved to be sent captives on a journey of 
two thousand miles on foot ! 

Was this a barbaric theatrical trick merely to frighten 
the trembling prisoners ? Quien sabe f They never knew. 



CHAPTER XVI 



Captive Train Started for Mexico City — Terrors of the Journey — 
Strange Scenes and Experiences — Pestilence and Chains — Liberty 
at Last, 

N spite of all disas- 
ters Kendall took 
daily notes. At first 
he was puzzled by 
the observation that 
the women nearly 
all had what he sup- 
posed was a birth- 
mark — a deep red 
spot on the face ; 
but he found it was 
put on with fruit- 
juice or vermilion, 
— in fine, a fashion. 
This he deplored ; 
3ut he approved of the dress of the females — the loose 
chemise and skirt, with seldom a gown ; sermonized on the 
beauty of the natural figure which it encouraged, to the 
rebuke " of corsets and other twisting and contorting 
devices."' 




S26 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

But this is aside from the tale of the Texans, who 
now were in a most helpless and sorry plight. The whole 
hard-luck prison gang was now started " down the road " 
for old Mexico. Cooke's advance division was put under 
way several weeks ahead of the others. Everybody was 
robbed. Not a man started on that terrible journey with 
more than a blanket, the clothes (mostly ragged) which 
he wore, and the money and jewelry he had managed to 
secrete about him. No one was allowed to ride. 

Kendall complained bitterly at the fact that he was 
treated the same as the others, no recognition being taken 
of his American citizenship. There were, in fact, six others 
who claimed to be citizens of the United States. Many 
others claimed, later on, the protection of other govern- 
ments — French, British, German. It was indeed a varie- 
gated organization. It contained physicians, engineers, 
soldiers, lawyers, mechanics of many trades, merchants, 
clerks, loafers, adventurers, horse-jockeys, and two or 
three comedy actors. They suffered hardships such as 
have not fallen to the lot of many men in modern days, 
because of their failure, for which few of them were 
responsible. They had been divided up accommodatingly 
for Armijo, whom the Texans underrated, to take in 
small lots, and now they could do nothing but bear their 
punishment. 

How Kendall hated Armijo and Salazar! As a part- 
ing shot to the former he gives a brief biography of 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 327 

him, beginning : " He was born of low and disreputable 
parents, and from his earliest childhood his habits were 
bad. He commenced his career by petty pilfering, 
which grew as he advanced in years to grand larcenies. 
While yet a youth he carried on a business in sheep- 
stealing," etc. All of which, and more that followed, was 
substantially true, and not spun out of the biographer's 
venom. 

Salazar was placed in charge of the captives to El Paso. 
Armijo sent with the train two or three dozen beef-cattle 
for subsistence, but the colonel slaughtered only two of 
them, keeping the others to sell for his own account, but 
of which profits he failed to realize, as will be seen. Ken- 
dall states that he fed parties of the captives at times as a 
keeper feeds wolves, tossing tortillas in the air, and laugh- 
ing heartily at the scramble for them by the famished 
men. Long starvation had robbed them of forbearance 
and human decency, and they would struggle roughly for 
the morsels. 

All soon suffered severely with sore and swollen feet, 
which resulted from being frost-bitten at night, as well as 
treading the stony roads by day. Mr. Kendall had to 
discard his shoes, and went limping in his stockings. 

Salazar told them his orders were to tie them all every 
night, but that his humanity forbade ! However, if any 
were missing in the morning, all the others would forth- 
with be shot, — his own special brand of humanity. 



328 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

There was a guard of two hundred poorly armed rural 
militia. They rode on either side of the long file, and 
might have been overpowered ; but their arms were so 
useless that the prisoners knew they would stand no chance 
of fighting their way out of the country with them. 

The terrors of this march through New Mexico un- 
steadies the pen. It was Salazar's policy to so weary the 
captives out during the day that they would have no life 
for escape at night. Some days an ear of corn was a 
ration. Once when complaint of extreme hunger was 
made to Salazar he pointed to where his horses were 
feeding and said, " The grazing is excellent." At other 
times each man got a pint of flour with which he made a 
dough and ate it, having no facilities for baking. A man 
died of exposure. The colonel had the ears cut off and 
preserved, as proof that he had not escaped. The corpse 
was thrown aside. 

Salazar would beat the sick and laggard, threatening 
to shoot them rather than be delayed. One McAllister, 
who broke down, he did shoot — and preserved his ears. 
Before finishing the journey he shot another. A third 
was shot at his order by a trooper. Still another was 
killed by being brained with a musket. At times the 
guards would give the lame ones " lifts " on their mules 
for a consideration. For these helps the captives gave 
part of their clothing. Sometimes they paid in brass 
buttons, which the rurales esteemed highly. 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 829 

When they came to that great westward bend in the 
Rio Grande — the valley of which they had followed — 
the road makes a cut-off across an arid plain for ninety 
miles, which was called Dead Man's Journey. There was 
no water on the stretch, and Salazar announced that the 
train was to make the distance without stop for food or 
sleep ! Every man was cautioned to fill his canteen with 
water. They tramped all day without a halt ! At night 
a freezing wind sprang up. They met a regiment of 
Mexican regulars on the way north to help repel the 
Texans. Still they kept on foot — it was now so cold 
they would have frozen had they slept. Some sank down 
in a stupor, begging to be left to die ! The stronger 
found self-help in rousing and urging them on. 

At daylight there was a halt of an hour for counting 
and bringing up stragglers. Then onward all day. On 
the evening of this second day the animals gave out, which 
forced a rest till ten o'clock. When the journey was 
resumed all the prisoners were so stiff and numb they were 
worse off than before. At the morning halt Salazar's 
humanity got the upper hand of him again, and he had 
an ox killed for their breakfast. After this banquet they 
slept in the sunshine till the afternoon. 

After marches some of the sufferers would sink down 
and go to sleep supperless, too exhausted to mix a 
porridge. Yet as the captive train trudged along they 
would chat with the guards, and most of them improved 



330 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

much on the journey in their Spanish. Mr. Kendall 
remarks, however, that profanity was always the first 
exchange in the languages. 

At El Paso the command of Salazar ended. The 
captives were turned over to another guard under General 
Gonzalez. They were now in Mexico proper, and at 
once were shown humane treatment. There were at the 
start one hundred and eighty-one. Five had been killed ; 
two had died. Now the train was formed in parties of six 
or eight and billeted around in the houses, where all were 
weU provisioned. Kendall and the officers stayed with 
General Gonzalez, and were banqueted. 

While they were all sipping wine together on an 
afternoon, Salazar came to make his accounting to the 
comandante. He was astounded at seeing the Texans so 
entertained. He told Gonzalez he had been ordered to 
deliver so many men, and all were there but five, who 
unfortunately had died on the way. Gonzalez, who had 
been informed of the ruffian's brutality, accused him 
sharply of having murdered them. Salazar denied it — 
declared he was a brave man. General Gonzalez retorted 
that his bravery had nothing to do with it ; that he was 
a murderer and a thief. Where were the cattle that had 
been sent in his care for the subsistence of his prisoners ? 
He must consider himself under arrest till he produced 
them, and no more words about it! 

Gonzalez gave the weary ones three days'" rest before 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 331 

starting with them for the south. The poor wretches got 
rid of some of their rags and vermin, the kindly Mexicans 
assisting them — those who were unable to buy — to fresh 
clothes. A noble priest named Ortiz showed marked phi- 
lanthropy and kindness. He had baked several hundred 
loaves of bread for the captives, and when they resumed 
their journey, sent it forward in his own wagons and by 
his own servants. He also gave Mr. Kendall a horse to 
ride to Chihuahua, three hundred miles. The journalist 
bears witness of the uniform kindness of the people 
throughout the long journey, evidenced not only in dona- 
tions of food, money, and clothing, but in expressions of 
genuine sympathy. It is, indeed, doubtful whether at 
any time a force of foreign adventurers entering the 
United States bent on similar objects would have re- 
ceived the kindness and sympathy from our people as 
that band of Americans and Texans did from the people 
of Mexico. 

General Gonzalez sent his carriage for the use of the 
principal officer-prisoners. Citizens provided mules for 
the men. The whole populace turned out to see them off. 
Taking advantage of such a numerous convoy, many of the 
business people sent their crops of fruits and wines to the 
Chihuahua market. Thus the prison train took on some- 
what the appearance of a triumphal procession. Yet the 
Texans were grotesque and even brigandish in their strange 
and motley apparel, long hair, and unshaven faces. They 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

could now laugh at each other. The serio-comic stage of 
the performance had been reached. 

The journalist noted that a half-breed Delaware Indian 
accompanied by a little fice of a petty Mexican officer 
visited their camp. The Delaware stated that he was a 
native of Indiana, where he had been educated ; and that 
his reputation for man-killing had secured him an offer from 
Mexican officials to come to their country and exterminate 
Apaches at five dollars a scalp, in which industry he was 
then engaged. His stories indicated enormous carnage at 
his hands, but as his appearance was not that of corres- 
ponding wealth, they suspected him. 

Upon their entrance in Chihuahua the tops of churches, 
convents, and other large buildings were crowded with 
people eager to see the vanquished Texans. The military 
of the city was drawn up along the roadway, and there 
was great blowing of trumpets and beating of drums. It 
was, in fact, much like a mediseval triumph with exhibit of 
captives. But they were well treated, the men receiving 
many presents of food and clothing. 

Here Mr. Kendall obtained some money from an 
American merchant upon drafts, which, it is curious to 
learn, reached New Orleans the same day he did, more 
than a year afterward, having been forwarded there by 
way of Santa Fe, the great prairie trail to St. Louis, and 
thence by river, a distance of nearly four thousand miles. 

Down through Mexico the experiences of the prisoners 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 

varied greatly. Their guard was changed at every State 
line, and their treatment depended on the disposition of 
the commandants. One or two of those were harsh, but 
as a rule they were lenient and even generous. At times 
they had to camp in the open and sleep on the ground in 
the chill mountain air, with scant rations. The next 
night they would be entertained by the citizens of some 
large town, banqueted, and amused with fandangoes and 
cock-fights. Usually they were locked in some sort of 
enclosure at night. 

At Zacatecas a subscription for their benefit was taken 
up among the foreign residents, and over a thousand 
dollars raised. A similar subscription was raised at 
Guanajuato. At San Luis Potosi they encountered the 
American circus which had come overland from the 
States two years before, and which had continued to play 
to good business. But at this city an enemy more fearful 
even than Armijo or his " myi-midons " attacked them. It 
was smallpox. Six or eight were taken with it, and in the 
end the scourge ran through the whole train. At Guana- 
juato eighteen were taken to a hospital. Five died. All 
now were in dread and dispirited, sustained only by the 
hope of immediate release upon their arrival at Mexico 
City. Yet Editor Kendall continued to take copious notes 
of the country, the people, and the customs. Among the 
things that impressed him was the great numbers of 
robbers everywhere. These banditti were, he asserts, so 



334 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

skilful in their business that Robert Macaire would have 
starved to death in competition with them. It was 
hinted, too, that bands of them held close relations with 
certain prominent citizens in honorable pursuits. 

At Queretaro, one of the Texans sent a friendly corporal 
with a dollar to get change, and the fellow returned with 
sixty-four cakes of soap. Upon remonstrance, the Texan 
was told that that was the regular thing, the soap being 
legal tender as subsidiary currency. And so it was. 
Stamped with the name of the town and of the person 
authorized to manufacture it, the stuff was a lawful 
medium of exchange locally. Other towns were found 
to have soap money also, — and has not "soap" often 
been used to designate certain financial transactions in 
the United States ? 

On arriving at Mexico, the party was split up and dis- 
tributed among different prisons and hospitals, as had the 
first division which reached the capital three weeks before. 
Some were sent to Puebla, others to the old convent prison 
of Santiago. At both places they were chained in gangs 
and put to work on the streets. Mr. Kendall was now ill 
with smallpox, and with a number of his friends was sent 
to the dread prison-hospital of San Lazaro. This was 
nothing less than a prison for lepers, many of whom were 
confined in it for life. The Americans were detained here 
some time after their recovery. It was ineffably dismal 
and repulsive. Many of the inmates were horribly 



THE GLORY SEEKERS S35 

disfigured by the fatal disease, yet Mr. Kendall says there 
was a degree of cheerfulness among them that seemed 
almost uncanny. They played at checkers and gambled 
at monte ; sang, strummed harps and mandolins, and even 
formed dances in which the unfortunates in all stages of 
affliction, even those on crutches, engaged. Yet San 
Lazaro never gave up its victims except at death. 

A weird story of a death within its heavily grated walls 
is given. It occurred in the evening. Some of the 
Texans playing at cards were requested not to talk so 
loud, as a priest was administering absolution to a dying 
lazarino close by. They were but a few yards distant, 
separated by an iron grating. Yet, during the solemn rite 
a buzzing of voices continued throughout the great, half- 
lighted prison. Few seemed to notice the voice of the 
priest, or to care. But this was not the most dolorous 
part. At midnight the Texans were awakened by a dis- 
mal chanting, and beheld a strange procession bearing 
torches and winding through the black recesses of the 
prison. It was the funeral of the dead lazarino. ITie 
discordant wails and chants, the flickering of the torches, 
the pall and the emblems, made a scene the most dismal, 
mystical, and depressing imaginable. The prison in itself 
was described as one of the vilest, most hideous, and mind- 
wrecking places in the world. 

There was great agitation in the United States for the 
release of the seven Americans, on the seven claiming ' the 



S36 THE GLORY SEEKERS 

protection of the United States. But Santa Anna, then 
provisional president, was slow to act. After much diplo- 
matic correspondence and continued efforts of our minis- 
ter to Mexico, they were all liberated. The Texans were 
retained several months longer, but all finally were set 
free, the amnesty being granted by Santa Anna as an act 
of benevolence on the celebration of his birthday. 

The editor-historian never forgave the harsh treatment 
he had received in his unfortunate predicament. A few 
years later he went with another expedition of conquest 
to Mexico, which was different. He accompanied Taylor 
through the campaign of the North, and Scott from Vera 
Cruz to the capital. Afterward he published a set of 
colored illustrations showing how his former oppressors 
were beaten and humbled in the many engagements of 
the war. 

The expedition of the Texans was not the last attempt 
to invade Spanish or Mexican territory. Under the old 
regime, when the juggernaut of slavery seemed to be de- 
manding a right of way through the universe, the designs 
of conquest and annexation became a part of the grand 
scheme to separate the Southern States from the Union, 
and to erect a republic whose borders were to be circum- 
scribed only by the salted seas. The war with Mexico, 
and the vast expansion of the Union which followed, was an 
encouragement of this design. The Southern movement 



THE GLORY SEEKERS 337 

of 1861 was alike ominous to the Union and to the 
future integrity of Mexico ; but the crushing of the Re- 
bellion blasted the last hope of a great independent 
Sovereignty. The buccaneer was succeeded by the cow- 
boy, and the rumble of predatory warfare by the orches- 
tration of sickles in the golden fields. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Adair, General, 100 

Adams, President John, 94 

Adams, John, with Nolan Expedi- 
tion, 123 

Adaras-De Onis Treaty, 247, 249 

Alston, Captain Solomon, 167, 
171 

Arbuthnot, — , hanged by Jack- 
son, 289 

Armbrister, — , hanged by Jack- 
son, 289 

Armijo, Governor, 312, 317-323, 
326, 327 

Armstrong, General, in Second 
Seminole War, 293 

Arnold, Benedict, 19 

Arredondo, General, 225-227, 
229, 233 

Aury, Luis de, 233-237 

Bakeh, — , with Texan-Santa Fe 
Expedition, 307, 311, 319, 320 

Baldonada, Senora Maria, in con- 
nection with Ellis Bean's Story, 
138-141 

Barclay, John, of Philadelphia, 
91 

Barr, — , with Magee Expedition, 
203 

Bastrop, Baron, 93 

Baton Rouge, Government of, 
164-191 

Bean, EUis, 128-160 

Bernadotte, 163, 164, 228 

Bigelow, Horatio, 253 



Bird, Captain, 53 
Blennerhasset, Burr's associate, 

94, 115, 116 
Blount, Fort, see Nichols, Fort 
Blount, William, of Tennessee, 

31, 63, 66-69, 74, 174 
Blount, — , brother of William 

Blount, of Tennessee, 67, 68 
Bolivar, on Galveston Bay, 264- 

269 
Bollman, Doctor Eric, 100 
Bomer, — , in Kemper raid, 166, 

171 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 162 
Bourbon, County of, Georgia, 72 
Bowie, James, 236, 252-254, 265 
Bowles, William Augustus, 78-82 
Brenham, R. F., with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 300, 309 
Brown, John, 35, 44 
Bruin, Judge, 119, 120 
Bullard, Captain, 227 
Bullitt, Col. A. L.,35 
Burling, Captain, 104 
Burr, Aaron, 17, 19, 90-102, 104, 

105, 107, 108-116, 122, 201, 228 
Butler, — , in Kemper raid, 166, 

170 

Caldwell, Captain, with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 300 

Call, General, in Second Semi- 
nole War, 293 

Calleja, Mexican rebel, 208 

Caller, Colonel Joseph, 174 



342 



INDEX 



Calvert, Lieutenant, 242, 243, 261 

Camden County troops under the 
Hammonds, 56 

Carondelet, Governor, of Louis- 
iana, 61-63, 77, 121 

Carr, Colonel, 53 

Chisholm, — , agent of William 
Blount, 66, 67 

Circus, American, in Mexico, 303 

Claiborne, Governor William 
C. C. , of Louisiana, 88, 89, 96- 
99, 108-115, 159, 183, 243 

Clark, Daniel, of New Orleans, 
30, 35, 38, 46, 91, 101, 105, 106 

Clark, George Rogers, 42, 43, 52, 
53, 55, 174 

Clarke, Colonel Elijah, 51, 56, 
174 

CHnch, Colonel, 285 

Clinton, Governor, of New York, 
Daughter of, 59 

Cochrane, Lord, in command of 
British fleet, 280 

Collins, — , slave agent, 295 

Cooke, Major, with Long in 
Texas, 254, 256, 263 

Cooke, William G., with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 300, 321, 
322, 326 

Cordero, ex-Governor, 208, 220, 
248 

Cordova, Treaty of, 267 

Coxe, Zachariah, 74 

Creek Indians, 275-297 

D'Arges, — , 32, 37 

Davenport, Colonel Samuel, with 

Magee expedition, 203, 205, 

207, 252-254 
Dayton, Jonathan, of New Jersey, 

92 
Delaware Indian, Incident of the, 

332 



Delgado, Captain, 221, 222 
Delpeau, — , associate of La 

Chaise, 52, 55 
" Democratic clubs," 52 
De Neva, Don Pedro, 119, 122, 

128 
Don Jesus, Mexican bandit, 314, 

317, 319 
Dorchester, Lord, 45 
Dow, Lorenzo, itinerant preacher, 

87, 88 
Drake, Admiral, of the British 

navy, 98, 99 
Dunmore, Lord, Governor of the 

Bahamas, 78, 79 
Dunn, Major Isaac, 33, 34, 46, 

120 

Elisondo, General, 224, 225 
EUicott, Colonel Andrew, 77, 79, 

81 
Enterprise, U. S. brig, 259 
Exiles, The Florida, 273-297 

Fauchet, — , successor to Genet, 

59 
" Ferocious, The," of Lafitte's 

band, 258, 259 
Fitzgerald, — , with Texan-Santa 

Fe Expedition, 311, 315 
Flowers, — , in Kemper raid, 166, 

170 
Folch, Spanish Governor, 175-177 
Foote, — , historian, 172, 173, 228, 

243 
Forsyth, Doctor, of Mississippi, 

205 
Fort St. Mark, Florida, 289 

" Gachupins," 218, 224, 226 
Gaines, General Edmund P., 283, 

285, 295, 296 
Gaines, Captain Joseph, with 



INDEX 



343 



Magee expedition, 207, 217, 
224 

Gaines, Colonel, with Long ex- 
pedition, 254-257 

Gaines, Myra Clark, 91, 283 

Galveston, Texas, 234, 259 

Galveston Island, home of pirate 
king, 257 

Gardoqui, Senor, 30-32, 41 

Gates, General, 20, 22 

Gayarre, Mr., historian of Louis- 
iana, 65 

Gayoso de Lemos, Don Manuel, 
77, 121 

Genet, Charles Edmond (" Citi- 
zen " Genet), 49-52, 55-61, 94, 
201, 204 

Georgia Company, 75 

Georgia-Mississippi Company, 75 

Giddings, J. R., 281, 284, 287 

Gignoux, — , associate of La 
Chaise, 52 

Godoy, Manuel de. Prime Min- 
ister of Spain, 241 

Gonzalez, General, 330, 331 

Gorthas, Senorita Anna, married 
Ellis Bean, 158-160 

Goss, Captain, 176 

Grandpre, Don Carlos de, 164, 166 

Grandpre, Louis, son of Gov- 
ernor Grandpre, 169 

Green, Thomas, 40-42 

Green, Thomas Marshall, 45, 102, 
103 

Griswold, — , Congressman from 
Connecticut, 69 

Guion, Major Isaac, 109 

Gutierrez, Bernardo, Magee's con- 
federate, 202-213, 217, 219-224, 
226, 252, 265 

Hamilton, Alexander, 83, 84 
Hammond, Abner, 57 



Hammond, Captain, 56 

Hammond, Colonel Samuel, 56 

Hargrove, Major, 176-178 

Hawkins, Colonel, 82 

Herrera, — , Mexican leader, 95, 
192, 208, 220 

Hidalgo, Mexican leader, 202, 
208 

Hildreth, — , historian, 66, 67 

Holmes, Doctor, 175 

Hortons, in Kemper raid, 166, 
170, 171 

Houghton, Captain, with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 300 

Howard, — , with Texan-Santa Fe 
Expedition, 311, 317 

Howland, — , guide with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 304, 307, 
311, 320, 321 

Hudson, Captain, with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 300 

Hunt, — , engineer with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 309 

Indian slaves, see Exiles 

Ingham, Congressman, of Con- 
necticut, 287 

Innes, Harry, 35, 43, 44, 47, 55, 
174 

Innes, James, 44 

Irving, — , historian, 22 

Iturbide, — , Mexican leader, 271 

Jackson, Andi-ew, 228, 235, 242, 
283-285, 289, 290 

Jay, William, 281, 288 

Jefferson, Thomas, Secretary of 
State, 54, 55, 136, 248 

Jessup, General, in Second Semi- 
nole War, 293, 294 

Johnson, Captain, with Long in 
Texas, 254, 262, 264 



344 



INDEX 



Kearney, Lieutenant, of the En- 
terprise, 259, 260 

Kemper, Nathan, 165-170 

Kemper, Reuben, 165-179, 183, 
186, 205, 209, 213, 214, 217-220, 
222, 223, 228, 232 

Kemper, Samuel, 165, 167-171 

Kendall, George Wilklns, 302- 
336 

Kennedy, Major, 174 

King, John, 123 

Kneeland, — , in Kemper raid, 
166, 170, 171 

La Chaise, Auguste, 52, 55 
Lafitte, King of the Baratarian 

pirates, 158, 234, 236, 254- 

260 
Lamar, Mirabeau B., 243, 246, 

261, 299-302, 311 
Land-robbery, 69-77 
Las Casses, French sloop-of-war, 

57 
Lausat, — , French agent, 89, 90 
Lewis, Captain, with Texan-Santa 

Fe Expedition, 300, 308, 311, 

315, 318-320, 322, 323 
Liston, Mr., British minister, 

67 
Livingston, Mr., negotiator in 

Louisiana purchase, 162 
Long, Dr. and Mrs., 240-247, 250- 

254, 257, 260-272 
Long, David, 254, 263 
Loorais, sailing-master, 285 
Louisiana, Purchase of Territory, 

161-164, 248 
Love, — , slave dealer, 295 
Lynching, the original practice, 

171 
Injtix, U. S. revenue patrol, 258, 

"259 
Lyon, — , Congressman, 69 



Madeline's story, 108-116, 243 
Madison, President, 181-186 
Magee, Augustus, 192, 194-217, 

222, 223, 227, 228, 232, 233, 239, 

251 
Manchaco, — , ally of Gutierrez, 

224, 226-229 
Mangourit, Michel Ange Bernard 

de, 51, 52, 59 
Maroons, The, see Exiles 
Mathers, James, 68 
Mathews, Governor, of Georgia, 

57, 279 
Mathurin, — , associate of La 

Chaise, 52 
Maury, Captain, of the Lynx, 258, 

259 
McAllister, — ,'with Texan-Santa 

Fe Expedition, 328 
McDermott, — , in Kemper raid, 

166, 170 
McGillivray, Chief of the Creeks, 

277 
McGillivray, — , of Georgia, 78, 

79 
McKim, Captain, with Magee ex- 
pedition, 205 
McLeod, General, commander of 

Texan-Santa Fe Expedition, 

300, 307 
Mead, Cowles, 94, 97, 98, 100, 101, 

109 
Medina, Battle of the, 227, 264 
Merry, Mr., British minister, 

90 
Midkiff, Miss, married Ellis Bean, 

160 
Milam, — , Mexican exile, 265 
Milton, — , slave-driver, 292 
Mina, Xavier, 234, 235, 237, 

238 
Miro, Governor, of Louisiana, 26- 

39, 45-47, 61, 65, 107, 121 



INDEX 



345 



Mississippi River, Spanish con- 
trol of, 24, 25, 61, 62 

"Mobile District," 164, 174 

Morelos, Jose Maria, 153-160,208, 
209 

Morgan, Colonel George D., 31, 
32, 37, 38. 

Morier, Mr. , British minister, 183, 
184 

Moultrie, Governor, of South Ca- 
rolina, 62, 174 

Muscle Shoals Island, Tennessee 
River, 74 

Napoleon in Louisiana transfer, 
162-164, 248 ; estimate of, 201 

Navarro, J. A., with Texan-Santa 
Fe Expedition, 300 

Navarro, Martin, 36, 37 

Necoroco, Comanche Indian chief, 
125, 126 

"Neutral ground" on Texas- 
Louisiana border, 95, 192-197, 
204, 230, 233, 247 

New Madrid, Louisiana Territory, 
31 

Newspaper, First, in Texas, 253 

Nichols, Fort, 281, 283, 286 

Nichols, Lieutenant, in British 
service, 281 

Nolan, Phihp, 107, 117-129, 131, 
132, 251 

O'Fallon, Doctor, 74 

Ordelaffi, Countess, Story of, 

267 
Ortiz, — , Mexican priest, 331 
Osman, Colonel, 109 
Owen, — , Wilkinson's agent, 47 

Paxton, — , of Georgia, 78, 79, 

82 
Parades, Colonel, 177 



Patterson, Commodore, 285 
Penalvert y Cardenas, Louis de. 

Bishop of Louisiana, 86, 87 
Perez, Colonel, 267 
Perry, Captain, with Magee ex- 
pedition, 205, 223, 226, 227, 231- 

235, 237-239. 
Pickett, — , historian, 73, 163, 

169 
Pike, Lieutenant Zebulon, 104, 

248, 249 
Poindexter, Mr., Representative 

from Mississippi, 189, 190 
Powell, — , historian, 93 
Power, Thomas, Carondelet's 

agent, 63, 64, 105-107 

Quakers emancipated slaves, 

278 
Quincy, Josiah, Representative 

from Massachusetts, 186-190 
" Quinta, The," San Antonio, 229, 

230 

Randolph, Edmund, 44, 57 

Randolph, John, 105 

" Republican Army of the North," 

202-230 
Reynolds, Lieutenant, 295, 296 
Rhea, John, 180, 181 
Richards, Mordecai, 123 
Ritchie, — , in Kemper raid, 166, 

170 
Robinson, John, 232 
Rodney, Judge, 168 
Rosalis, Battle of, 217, 218 
Rosenberry, — , with Texan-Santa 

Fe Expedition, 307, 311, 321 
Ross, Captain, of Mississippi, 205, 

223, 228 

Salazar, Colonel, 312-315, 321, 
326-330 



S46 



INDEX 



Salcedo. Don Manuel de, 20^ 

Salcedo, Ximesio. 1£^>, 13? 

San Antonio. Sufferings of, ??9, 
330, £3f 

San Lanaro. Mexican prison- 
hospital. 334. 335 

Santa Anna, provisional presidait 
of Mexico, 336 

Santa Rosa. Mexico, Refuge of 
Exiles, 291 

Svai^^nt, Governor. 119. 130 

Saunders. Romulus. 65 

Scott, G-eneral. in Second Semi- 
nole War. ?P3. 336 

ScotL Lieutenant, ?SS 

Seacoffee, Chief of the Creeks. 
ei5 

Sebastian. Judge Benjamin, 36. 
3S, 44, 47, 557174 

Seminoles. ?75-?P7 

Shaw, Commodore, 95 

Shdby, Governor Isaac, of Ken- 
tucky, 54, 55, 57, 55, 174 

Sibley. Cyrus. 17S 

Slave" trade. The, 349.373-297,336 

Smith. Major, ■with Long in Texas, 
354, 364 

"Soap" money. 334 

Soto la Marina, at mouth of 
Satander River. 337 

South Carolina, Yaroo Company, 
73, 74 

'* Spanish Conspiracy." Green, 45 

St. Clair, General, 46 

Strain. Captain, -with Texan-Santa 
Fe Expedition. 300 

Sullivan. — , Revolutionary vet- 
eran, 43 

Sutton, Captain, ■with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, 300, 303 

Swan. Lieutenant, 98 

Sydney, Lord, 45 



Tatlob, Captain Joseph, with 
Magee expedition, 305, 319, 
330, 333, 336, 337 

Taylor, General, in Second Semi- 
nole War. 393, 394. 336 

Telfair. Governor of Georgia, 73 

Tennessee Company. 73-75 

Texan-Santa Fe Expedition. 39S- 
336 

Thatcher, Mr., of Boston, 67 

Titles. Military. 366 

Toledo. General Jose Alvares, 
2^, 337. 333. 335. 366 

Towles. Doctor. 167 

Treaty between United States and 
Spain, 1795, 61. 63 

Trespalachios. — . Mexican exile, 
365. 366 

Tuskegee, site of Fort Tolouse, 



Tax Ness. George, with Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition. 311. 31S 
Venegas, Mexican viceroy, 225 
Mck, — , founder of Vicksburg, 

347 
Vicksburg, Beginnings of. 347 
Victoria, Mexican rebel, 30S 
Vidal. Senor. 119, 133 
Vigil. Don Gregorio. 315 
Virginia Yazoo Company, 73 

Walxeb. Captain, with Long in 

Texas. 354." 262. 364 
Washington, President, 73, 74, 

76, 83^ S4 
Waters, Tony, 134-137 
Watson. — . slave dealer, 395 
Whiskey tax. S5 
Wilkinson. James. 17, 19-23. 25- 

39. 43-4S, 53, 55, 60-65. 53-S5, 

89-109, 119-133, 174, 193, 194, 

195, 201, 204, 252 



INDEX 



847 



Wilkmson, Jennie, ae^y Long, Dr. 

and Mrs. 
Willbanks, — , confederate of 

Bowles, 79 
Williamson, — , Aaron Burr's 

agent, 90 
Wilson, Lieutenant, 167 
Wirt, William, 115, 172 



Wolstoncroft, Bilajor, 195 
Worth, General, in Second Semi- 
nole War, 293 

" Yazoo Act," 76 

Yoakum's history of Texas, 131, 

-216 
Yruzo, ilinister, 92 



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